Thylacine
by GreenbrambleOkapi
Summary: The Kratt brothers return to Tasmania after the news of an extinct thylacine being spotted there. After a strange midnight encounter with one of these creatures, Chris starts acting a little- tazzy. But when Tazzy gives a frightening appearance to the locals, things might just stop the thylacines from existing at all. (T for action, not language)
1. Prologue

**Hi guys :) Greenbramble here! This is my first story here on fanfiction... so I hope you enjoy. Though this is not my first fanfic I've made, I decided it would be the first one I want to upload. I based this off of a picture drawn by Winterbolt. ~Greenbramble**

**-NOTE: None of the Wild Kratts crew belong to me. :)**

**PROLOGUE:**

The wind buffeted the small blue tent in the night. It rushed across the fabric and made it hum and tremble with its strength. It was a strong wind that night, and he couldn't sleep. His brother on the other hand was out like a light and was mumbling something inaudible as he smiled in his sleep. He was most likely dreaming about the adventures of the next day, or if not, was undoubtedly dreaming about sweets, as usual.

The wind continued to rip at the threaded fabric of their tent. It sounded frighteningly powerful, and he was considering re-hammering the pegs in the ground, but he feared being crushed by a falling branch as soon as he stepped out. But if a branch did fall, it would possibly fall on the tent and crush them both. He continued thinking his paranoid thoughts of plausible (and impossible) ways he could die by the wind. It didn't really help him with his sleeping problem; it just made him stay up later by being too concerned of his well-being to rest. Every strong gust made him think of being blow away, which had already happened to him multiple times, but he didn't want that to be repeated. Every rustle of bushes and cracking of sticks sent his heart into a short jumping dance.

Eventually, out of instinct, he snatched up a flashlight out of his bag and shone it in front of him. He swallowed. How childish he must have thought of himself. He turned and shone it on his sleeping older brother, who kicked his legs twice like a dog dreaming of squirrels. He swallowed again and switched off the flashlight then lay his head down on his pillow. His eyelids felt heavier than lead but his brain was too jumpy to keep them closed. Paranoia wasn't the only thing on his mind, it was excitement. Tomorrow was going to be a big day for him and his brother. After strange sightings of the extinct Tasmanian tiger started to be flashed all over the news, the two (and their crew) returned to Tasmania to see if they could find the truth. Though he had always been the one obsessing over discovering a new species, rediscovering an extinct creature would be equally incredible. They had arrived at dusk and decided to relax before the exciting day coming up. The girls had a separate tent, but Jimmy refused to sleep outside. He was smart enough to check the weather before having a campout.

Another sound rustled outside of the tent, but it was louder than before. He nearly jumped out of his skin. A silly smile grew on his face, _I'm so ridiculously childish. _Then he heard the rustle again. This time curiosity overtook him and he snatched up his flashlight with its light now on and blazing ahead. He stepped out of the tent. The wind fluttered through his jacket and black leather vest and made him shiver. He had slept with his creature power suit on; he was too excited to take it off for a second. Gladly the thick and flexible vest warmed him a little more than he would have been without it. That was a plus. He turned his head toward sound and shone the light in that direction. The flashlight's shine was stationed on a bush with two round eyes shining back at him. "Hey," he said softly. "Come on out." The bush shifted a little and a few leaves fluttered off into the wind. "I won't hurt you." He knelt to the ground to make himself lower, showing whatever it was he was a harmless friend. The bush shifted again and the creature slowly stepped out with a glint of curiosity in its inky black eyes.

It had a long muzzle, sort of like a dog. It cocked its head at him. His heart nearly stopped. The strange creature had distinctive stripes down its back. It was a baby Tasmanian tiger. "Hold still little guy." He slowly reached into his backpack for his creature pod, never taking his eyes off the creature for a second. He felt his fingers clutch around the smooth creature pod and yanked it free, but he fumbled it and it dropped to the ground. "Hold on." He took his eyes away from the Tasmanian tiger for only a second. But many a thing can happen in only a second, and it wasn't a good thing this time. When his eyes went back to the creature it was gone. "Fast little devil!" He slammed his fist angrily upon the ground. "Nearly had him! Oh, just to think I could've proved those people right! I found him, but I have no proof!" He paused and sighed, "Well at least we've got tomorrow."

Suddenly he felt something prodding at his back. He turned his head and saw the Tasmanian tiger pressing it face against his back. He grinned, "Now I gotcha." But the tiger didn't seem to want his photo taken, and he lunged forward at the attractively shiny button on his chest. He snapped down on it with his strong jaws and it popped like a light bulb and shattered in all directions. Frightened by the sound and the sting of the flying glass, the creature went whimpering off into the darkness.

"No." He said unhappily as he gingerly touched the broken glass on his chest. "Tell me you won't glitch again. You can't. I won't have it." He spoke too soon. A sudden violent shock of electricity ripped through his body. It felt like his genetic strands of DNA were being unraveled and being raveled back again in the most uncomfortable way possible. Then a bright and vibrant green light engulfed him. When the light cleared there stood a tall furry and growling creature with the stripes of a Tasmanian tiger. His eyes were adjusted to the dark night and an evil smile grew on his face, revealing a sharp pair of canines. He sniffed the air and suddenly jumped off into the darkness, huffing and growling as he went. Tazzy was back.

**Well, sorry it's short... but the other chapters will be looonnnggg... X3 I'm also not very good at the formatting here yet, so... the paragraphs look ugleh.- Other than that... Please review and tell me what you thing :3 It would make this first timer happy!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

The wind ripped through his feathery fur and his powerful muscles stretched as ran. His eyes were wild with hunger. They weren't his eyes. His body wasn't in control. Something else had taken over his mind. It wasn't the tiger itself, but it was the combination of the two that created an intensely different creature all together. He stood up on his hind legs and put his front paws against a tree trunk. He lifted his head higher and took a sniff of the air, making a grunting and huffing sound as he breathed in. He grinned again and went back onto all fours, only to run off again in pursuit of tasty garbage.

Eventually he came out into a drive way. He sniffed the air in interest. He had entered a small neighborhood. A few lights were on in some of the houses and there were some lamps out on the street. He turned to a pair of trash cans and licked his lips hungrily. Yum, _garbage_. Gladly he was a Tasmanian tiger, and didn't really care. He knocked over the trashcan which made a loud clanking crash. It was one thing to see a striped raccoon or even a stray cat eating out of your trash can, but if you saw a 6 foot green animal that was supposed to be extinct; that was a different thing. So much for the stealth factor of sneaking in and stealing somebody's trash (if you could call that stealing at all, since it is garbage).

Obviously the green beast did attract a whole lot of attention, and unluckily the attention he caught was armed with guns. Not good.

"Ai! Get out of my garbage you mangy mutt!" It was a man, obviously the one who owned the house… and the garbage.

He turned his head and bared his fangs, making a rather frightening growling noise to go with it. The darkness had hid him fairly well to this point, because if they saw what he was, they would've already shot at him or would have run away screaming like little girls.

"I don't think that's our neighbor's cat," the man said to his wife standing beside him.

"Me neither," she said worriedly, "Get the gun ready."

The man put his finger on the trigger, ready to fire. Then his wife clicked on a flashlight she was holding and shone it towards the trashcans. He squinted and made a huffing sound when the blinding light flashed in his eyes.

"Oh my god! What is it? Kill it!" the wife screamed.

"I got it, sweetie, just let me aim!"

The frightened screams of the couple sent him into a total freak-out mode. He stood on his hind legs and roared, sort of.

"Get back!" the man screamed as he pushed his wife behind him and pulled the trigger.

With a large bang, he let out a huge bellow as the bullet grazed his shoulder. When he regained his balance he glared at the couple with fury in his eyes. He roared again and swiped his paw in front of them.

The two let out a terrified yell and the man took another shot at him again, but he missed by a whole lot.

At this point, the whole street had awoken because of the ruckus. Some people came out into the street with guns, and the others (the fairly smarter ones) stayed inside. Eventually fear over took his fury, and he ran off into the forest to leave the people in confusion.

He kept running and running through the dark woods, absolutely unaware of where he was going. Fear welled up inside his monster body and he collapsed onto the ground and sent dead leaves into the air. He moaned and grabbed his grazed shoulder.

Suddenly light engulfed him and he returned to human form. He sat up shakily, eyes wide. "Wha- where am I?" He looked around confusedly. Then he looked down at his shoulder and saw the graze across his skin. "What the heck is this from?" He clutched it tighter and stood up. "I should look for the campsite."

As he walked, his body shivered a few times and his hands twitched. Sometimes it felt like he was getting little static sparks up his spine. Slowly he touched the button on his chest. He felt the sharp edge of glass against his hand. "Snap. I broke it." Then he remembered the tiger and nearly face palmed himself. "Scratch that, the T-tiger broke it." He grinned weakly, "Woo, I saw a T-tiger for real. That's too cool."

He continued walking for a while until he walked out into the street. "Oh, I did not go in the right direction." Stepping a little further down the street, he heard a bunch of people shouting and panicking. "What's going on?" He approached the noise.

About a dozen people circled a young couple and were spraying them with tons of frantic questions.

"What was it?"

"Was it really that big?"

"How big were its claws?"

"Did you scare it off?"

Curiously, he pushed forward through the crowd and stepped out in front of the couple. The woman clung fearfully to her husband's arm. The husband was holding a gun in his other hand. He flinched; he didn't like guns. "Excuse me," he said. "What happened here?"  
The man responded for his frightened wife, "Something attacked us, some animal."

Someone in the crowd blurted out, "He said it had stripes!"

He rubbed his chin in thought. "Hmm… Striped." He paused for a couple seconds and then introduced himself, "I'm Chris Kratt, a biologist. I may be able to help you find out what it is." He turned and paced. The people parted to clear his way. "Striped you say? Where were its stripes?"

The husband responded again, "Down its back. I haven't seen anything like it."

Chris nearly yelled 'WHAT?!' out of surprise. The first thing that came to his mind was a thylacine, a Tasmanian tiger. He remembered the little T-tiger. How could that thing be evil? He had to contain himself. If he said it was a T-tiger, they'd try to shoot it. Then there'd be no more thylacine. Bye, fame and fortune. Most of all, good-bye cool creature. Still, He couldn't lie either. He just held his tongue.

The husband gently separated his wife from his arm and approached Chris. Cocking his head, he pointed to the tear in his skin. "Where's that from?"

"Um," said Chris worriedly, "I have no idea." Again, the thylacine came to mind. No, but he couldn't have done that. He wouldn't have done that. "I believe I got it when I fell in the forest. I was outside my camp and then I awoke on the ground."

"You're lost then, mate?"

"No," he responded, "Just temporarily bewildered."

The husband laughed, "You're good one!"

Chris chuckled, "I've been told that." Something in the back of his mind kept him from smiling though, something here just wasn't right. What was that animal? "About the _creature_, how big was it exactly?"

"The thing was bigger than me," said the husband worriedly. "Never seen such a thing."

The wife finally spoke, "The thing had claws. It nearly tore me with them."

Chris shivered. Whatever it was, it was dangerous to the public. "I'll try to keep an eye out for it. If I find anything, I'll tell you all. Just keep this whole thing quiet. We don't want to scare anyone." Then he turned, waved, and walked away into the forest.

Eventually he found the camp again before dawn break. He knew it would be useless to try to sleep, so he cleaned up his scrape.

When the crew woke up, they sat around a picnic table and ate lunch. Martin was as talkative and excited as ever, eating his chocolate covered toast. Aviva switched on the radio to the news to see if they could get anything on the sightings. Two people were getting interviewed. Chris felt his spine get cold. He knew those voices.

Aviva looked at Chris and saw the look on his face. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," he said nervously.

"Are you sure?" She said doubtingly. "You look upset."

"Guys, shhh! I wanna hear this!" said Martin excitedly as he turned up the volume. "These people saw a monster! It had stripes, like a Thylacine."

Apparently the people didn't listen to Chris' warning. That wasn't going to be good.


	3. Chapter 2

**Okay, I already have the first 4 chapters typed up, so those can be uploaded any time (once I look through them). So here's chapter two for you all!**

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**Chapter 2**

Martin walked with a skip in his step. Whistling and smiling, he was thinking of how great it would be to see a T-tiger at long last. Chris's back was slumped. He had already seen a T-tiger, but he had a sick feeling he'd never see it again. Other scientists probably had concluded to the frightened residents of the Tasmanian neighborhood that it was indeed the rare elusive and believed-to-be extinct thylacine they had seen. The scientists hadn't probably thought the people would go after the tiger, but Chris did.

"Hey, dude," his brother said excitedly. "We so gotta name this thing!"

"Uh, no Martin," said Chris solemnly. "We shouldn't."

"Oh come on!" He smiled as they continued walking, "What about Jupiter?"

"What?" Chris half laughed, "Jupiter? Have you been reading my Roman mythology book?"

"Can I say yes?" He said innocently. "But it's a perfect name! A big guy like him needs a big name. Jupiter was a really big guy!"

Chris covered his mouth with his hand to hide his laugh.

"What? Oh, not like that!" He laughed. "Jupiter was a mighty god."

"Still," said Chris rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"What's going on Chris?" Martin ordered seriously. He always wanted to make sure his baby brother was okay.

"Well," he paused nervously, "I saw something last night and-"

"You saw _it_, didn't you?"

"No- not exactly. I saw a baby one."

"Really? You saw another T-tiger? Dude that's so awesome! Tell me you got a picture."

"I tried." Chris looked down nervously at the shattered paw pad of his creature power suit. He picked at another piece of the glass that had remained.

"Oh no." Martin stopped walking and stood in front of his brother to examine the suit. "This is bad."

Chris pushed Martin away from him, "It's okay! Really! Nothing has happened yet."

"Chris," said Martin worriedly. "What about last time? You got bitten by the T-_devil_?"

"I went tazzy. I know." He looked solemnly at his suit. "But it won't happen again."

"Chris, if anything happens, just tell me." Martin paused and put his hand on Chris's shoulder. "I don't want you hurting anyone… or yourself." Then he turned and kept walking.

Chris stood there for a few seconds; thinking of what to do or say. "Wait!" He called out to his slowly disappearing brother. "I met those people last night. I told them not to tell anybody because- because I didn't want people to shoot the tiger."

Martin turned his head to listen, and when he was finished he came bounding back to Chris. "That's why it's our job to protect them."

The small group of people gathered near the news reporters' van and listened to the interview with fear and interest.

"So," said the interviewer "Is it true that this might be a thylacine, or is this only a rumor?"

A scientist with a white coat stood beside the husband and wife. He wasn't an old man, but he wasn't a young man either. He was most likely in his late 40s. He had short brown hair streaked with gray and was mighty tall. "Yes, the stripes down its back as they described are very distinctive to this specie."

The interviewer asked another question to the scientist. "It could be a danger to the public. What do you suppose the townspeople do about it?"

The group of people muttered quietly to each other so not to mess up the interview; hoping the scientist would think of something reasonable to protect them.

"I suppose," the scientist said rubbing his chin, "We'll have to see what the creature does. If anything else comes up about it, we'll have to think of something." He paused for a moment and continued rubbing his chin. "But for now we will have to investigate. This is a very big find for science."

The interviewer nodded and the recording was stopped.

The people continued to mutter to each other, but a little louder than before. They didn't want this _thing _wandering around their town, ready to attack.

The man and his wife approached their neighbors with looks of worry on their faces. "I was hoping he'd say to get rid of it. I don't want to see it again."

The wife sighed and brushed some of her hair out of her eye. "Well, the man knows what he's doing, and that's all that matters."

Silently agreeing, the group nodded and head back to their homes.

"Are you sure?" the man said quietly to his wife as the others walked away.

"Yes." But deep inside she doubted herself greatly.

Once the two brothers got to the town, it was already noon. The two stepped out into the street, it was strangely quiet.

"Where is everyone?" Chris questioned.

Martin shrugged, "I have no idea."

Suddenly they heard a group of loud voices approaching them. "There!" Chris yelled as he pointed down the street at the oncoming people. "That's them!"

Martin stood up strait and faced toward the people while waving his arms in the air to get their attention. "Hey! Over here!"

"Martin!" Chris scoffed. "They could see us already!"

"Oh," smiled Martin lightly.

The people approached the brothers quickly. One person shouted out, "Hey! You're that guy from last night!" Suddenly the whole group silenced. They all looked at each other and whispered worriedly.

Chris put his hands on his hips and looked sternly at them, "Oh, so _now _you remember?"

The people continued to whisper nervously amongst themselves, until a pair of people stepped out. It was the husband and wife.

Chris took his hands off his hips and glared at them in annoyance.

"We're sorry, mate," said the husband with his arm around his wife. "We're just concerned."

The wife nodded sadly.

Chris almost felt like screaming at them for disobeying, but they hardly knew him. Besides, not all people understood animals like he and Martin did. He breathed in to control himself and said it straight, "Just don't hurt the animal, kay? The thing's supposed to be extinct. It's probably half scared to death."

The people looked at each confusedly, but then they nodded. The husband spoke up again, "We'll do our best, mate. But the words out, and we don't know what'll happen."

Chris sighed and looked down, "Neither do I."

Martin slowly put his hand on Chris's shoulder sympathetically. "Sorry, dude. We'll just have to do our best." Then he looked up at the people and smiled. "I'm Martin, Chris's brother. The T-tiger won't be bothering any of you anymore… probably. If you all scared it off, he won't be back anytime soon."

A few people sighed in relief.

"Well," said Martin cheerily as he gave Chris a friendly slap on the back. "We'd best be off. If we see anything we'll tell you. Have a nice day!"

They turned to go, but suddenly Chris let out a groan and grabbed at his arm.

"Whoa, what's the problem bro?" Martin asked worriedly. He gently touched Chris' arm.

"I," Chris paused. "I hurt my arm last night. I don't know how." He looked up at Martin. Somehow his eyes seemed to be glowing.

Full of concern, Martin pulled Chris behind one of the houses. "Dude, what's going on?"

"I don't know, I said!" Chris suddenly got very mad and started to growl.

"Oh no." Martin stared at Chris in alarm. "Please no."

Chris took in a sudden deep breathe and controlled himself. "I'm sorry," he shook his head, "I'm just mad." He turned from his brother and walked away.

Martin watched his brother walk away and let out a deep unhappy sigh. He slid down the side of the house into a sitting position. He needed to figure out to protect the T-tiger before it was too late for the specie, again.

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**Of course, ****_now_**** the format is working... T_T Reviews are appreciated.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Chris leaned against a tree and took a deep breath. He let the sounds and smells of the wilderness calm him. He felt very tired… of course because he had gotten no sleep last night. His eyes started to close and he collapsed in sleep onto the ground. But he didn't remain this way for long. His body started to shiver in his sleep. Green sparks flew from the shattered button and bounced along the mossy ground. He began to growl and snort. In a flash his form had changed. Chris was T-tiger again, but he remained asleep.

Time passed and it was now dusk. The sky was darkening and it was the soft colors of orange and pink as the sun set. Martin had returned to camp after the talk with the people. He was starting to get worried though. It wasn't like Chris to be gone this long. He had suspected for quite some time that he was looking for the thylacine, but he hadn't returned yet.

"Aviva?" called Martin. "I'm going to look for Chris."

Aviva looked up from the pot of soup she was stirring over a nice warm fire. "Don't you want to eat first?"

"No," Martin shook his head and then picked up his backpack. "I need to find him."

Aviva let the spoon rest on the inside of pot and put her hands to her hips. "Martin, he's probably fine. You know your brother. Besides," she paused and gestured to the bubbling pot. "I can't eat all this soup on my own."

Martin slowly set his backpack down next to himself and licked his lips hungrily. "Okay, I'll have a _little_."

Chris twitched his ear at the sound of rustling leaves. His eyes opened and he let out a large yawn, exposing his lovely canines. He smiled and rolled onto his back, only to find a stick jabbing out underneath his back. He let a strange annoyed groan as he rolled back over. Angrily picking up the nuisance of a stick, Taz tossed it into the bushes and got up with another exhausted yawn.

Shaking his head to clear out the drowsiness, he let out a sound that almost sounded like he was trying to talk, but his voice skipped around like a broken record or a glitching robot. Instinct taking over, he rolled his eyes and ran off. He was clearly unaware of his current state.

Taz ran towards the delicious scent of garbage, as always. He obviously had forgotten how his arm nearly got shot off the last time. The branches rubbed and scraped at his thick green pelt, but he didn't give a care. He kept running and licking his lips.

Following the scent until the sun disappeared behind the hills, Taz came out into the open of the neighborhood street. Oblivious to the last experience he had there, he lumbered happily up to a smelly garbage pail filled with tasty… well, garbage. He pulled the lid off the can and threw it into the bushes while grinning his devilishly devious smile. Tazzy Chris pulled a fish bone out of it, gave it a testing sniff, and then started digging excitedly through the trash. One man's trash is one tazzy's snack… sort of.

The lights switched on in the house and frantic sounds of people rushing came from inside it. Tazzy lifted his head from the trash and looked into the now lit house. Cocking his furry head, he let out a little confused growl. He pushed himself from the trash can, yawned, and scratched himself behind his ear.

The door to the little house flew open with a crash and screaming two people came flying out. One was a young ten year old girl with blonde pigtails. The other was a taller girl with the same color hair in a ponytail. She looked like an army Sargent with her strong muscles, fierce look, and, of course, her gun.

Tazzy's ears pricked up when he saw the gun. _Gun. Gun. Gun. Gun. Bad. Bad. Bad. _

"It's the thing!" screamed the little girl as she pointed at it with an angry look on her face.

The older girl stared at him with a crookedly evil grin. "Wonder how much we'll get if we catch it."

Apparently Tazzy Chris didn't like crookedly evil grins. He reared up on his hind legs; making himself 6 feet tall and absolutely terrifying with his dark fur and big claws.

"AHHH! SHOOT IT! SHOOT IT! BEFORE IT KILLS US WITH IT'S CLAWS!" cried the little girl in fear.

"Will do," smirked the older girl as she aimed the gun.

With a loud bang, the bullet shot right past his ear, which is what she had intended. Not only would it stun the beast, but the sound would call her fellow hunters into the fight.

Alarmed, like he should be, Chris let out a terrified thylacine scream and slashed at the two girls. The older girl pushed her screaming sister out of the way and readied her gun, just in case.

Lights flickered on throughout the street. Doors swung open. The people who had guns rushed toward the fight.

Chris saw them coming and his eyes widened in fear. Another shot was fired next to his head and he screamed again, turned around, and fled to the forest.

Screams and yells came from the angered people behind him. The chase was on.

"It's back!"

"Scare it off for good!"

"Don't let it hurt us!"  
"Don't kill it, we'll get in trouble!"

"Frighten it away!"

"Get it! Get it!"

Tazzy's eyes were wide with fear as he ran from the people. The fear welled up so much inside his chest that it felt as if it would pop. Suddenly his body jerked and his eyes started to glow green in the dark. A sense of power rushed to his paws. He turned and rose to his full height, and with a spark of green electricity he slashed his paw at a man in the lead of the group. It was the husband who had been attacked on the first night. Tazzy Chris didn't seem to care. He let out a huge roar. A few people ran away screaming in fear.

The strong blonde girl stepped in front of the frightened group and yelled at them, but she never took her eyes off of the monster. "Don't shoot it! We will talk to the scientist tomorrow and ask him what should be done!" She stopped speaking and starred at Tazzy straight in the eyes. He stood unmoving in fear. Then the girl yelled a command to the group, "Scare it away! Do not chase it this time!"

Sudden gun shots were heard all around the forest. Chris's wild eyes grew wide. He howled in terror and fled into the forest without ever looking back.

Martin looked up from his third bowl of soup. "Those gun shots sound really close." A worried look crept over his face. "I hope Chris isn't involved. Or Jupiter."

Aviva looked a little bit worried too, but she questioned him. "Jupiter?"

He looked at her and smiled. "Oh, that'd be the big ol' T-tiger they were talking 'bout on the news." He turned and put his bowl down. "I need to look for Chris now. He might be trying to stop those hunters. He's probably getting himself in trouble." He waved, smiled, and then picked up his backpack. "See ya' Aviva!"

"See ya' Mk!" She called after him. "Good luck!"

Eventually Martin found the townspeople. They were gathered in a circle, muttering worriedly to one another in the dark.

Martin approached them and tried to part the circle. "Exuse me. Pardon me. Can I come through?"

Soon enough, he had squeezed through the cluster of people and into the middle. A man lay there with fresh cuts across his chest. Martin gasped in alarm. "What on earth happened?"

A powerful looking young woman stepped out in front of him. "Oh, it's _you_ again. Perfect timing," she said sarcastically.

Martin was taken aback by her rude response. "Look lady! I don't even know you. Just answer my question! What _happened_?"

She looked seriously annoyed. _Strong mouth this one has_. "Your evil tiger you and your brother were protecting _attacked _this man!"

Shocked, he didn't hold back his thoughts. "B-but a T-tiger would never do that! I know they're safe! Tazzy was safe! He wouldn't hurt anyone!"

The group fell silent.

_Oh snap, _thought Martin.

"Tazzy?" The girl laughed. "Who is Tazzy? The tiger?"

Martin was about to shout no, but he held his tongue. "He was a T-devil."

"T-_devil_? That's a different story." The girl put her hands on her hips. "Tomorrow we are talking to a _real _scientist to see what he proposes we should do."

_REAL?! _Martin almost screamed. _I'M AS REAL AS YOUR GONNA GET, LADY! _But a sudden voice stopped him short.

"M-martin?"

Martin turned. His eyes softened when he saw the face of his brother. He ran to him.

Chris stumbled forward weakly and fell into his arms. "Martin. Something's going on."

"I know." He said nervously.

The group stared at the brothers. The girl glared at them with suspicion.

Chris looked nervously at the group. "What happened? What did you do?"

"What did _we_ do?" scoffed the girl furiously. "Nothing! Your monster attacked this man!"

Chris stood up, but he looked in pain as he did. Stumbling forward, the group parted and he collapsed in the middle of them. When he saw the man, his eyes grew wide. Then he shook his head. "Why?" He shakily put his hand to the cuts on the man's chest. The man wasn't dying, or anything close to it, but he was hurt. Chris felt a sick drop in his stomach when he touched the wound. He couldn't let people get hurt. But he couldn't let the T-tiger get hurt either, especially the little baby he saw the other night.

Martin looked at his brother sadly. He was in pain for some reason. Maybe the lack of sleep? Maybe the lack of food? Or was it something else? He hoped it was one of the first two. "Chris? Are you alright?"

Chris swallowed. His face was very pale. "This isn't good."

Martin sat down next to his brother and the man. He put his hand on Chris's back. He seemed to be vibrating.

Suddenly, the man from the other night spoke. His voice was a little bit quieter than normal. "Those claws are sharp." He tried to smile, but he flinched.

"Sir! Are you alright?" asked the young woman as she dropped to his side.

"Eh, it could be worse." He touched the wound and flinched again. "That thing's fur was such a strange color."

Chris glanced at Martin nervously. He didn't want to ask the question, so Martin asked it for him. "What do you mean by _strange_?"

The man lifted his hand to the sky and started to explain. "It was such a dark color for a thylacine. It wasn't black, but I can't really explain it."

Chris got paler still. He was breathing unsteadily. He stood up and ran. He ran away with Martin on his tail crying out, "Please come back!"

The young woman leaned against her gun, eyes slit in suspicion. _Something's up with them. I just can't tell what yet. _

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**I really don't writing this lady character :P She's evil... lol. I need to stop calling the husband 'the husband' and the wife 'the wife'. XP I'll add the next chapter tomorrow. Hope you've enjoyed! **


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Oh Chris. Oh Chris. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm not sure. I don't know. It was just a suspicion." Chris said sadly with his eyes closed. He pressed the cold wet cloth against his head.

"I feel like this is my fault," said Aviva sorrowfully as she put her hand on Chris's forehead.

"I don't even know if I'm right. You really need to calm down 'Viva."

She looked away from him. Her eyes glinted with guilt. "I'm sorry. I don't want to cause you harm because of my-" she paused and sighed.

Chris opened his brown eyes and waited for her to finish her sentence.

"-foolish mistakes."

Chris smiled a little smile. "We're all humans Aviva. Mistakes are just are our natural ways of telling us what not what to do next time."

She laughed quietly and halfheartedly. "I guess. You're sure you're not… tazzy?"

"Pfft!" chuckled Chris. "I should know when I've been eating garbage again." He paused and stuck his tongue out a little. "_Trust me._"

They looked at each other for a couple seconds, both smiling, but deep inside their eyes was a look of worry and suspicion.

Chris's smile faded and he looked away. He looked sore and tired. "Trust me."

Martin popped out of the blue tent's flap with a granola bar sticking out of his mouth. "Wuzpgiz?" He said with a wave of his hand.

Chris sat up and continued to press the rag against his head. "Sorry, dude, I can't really speak granola bar." He let out a little laugh.

"Whadderootakngh-" He paused and pulled the granola from his mouth. "Oh, yeah, that." He munched a bite off the bar. "It's tasty."

Chris and Aviva chuckled again, but were shortly cut off by an annoyed cry.

"Hey! You!"

They whipped their heads toward the sound. A small group of fairly annoyed people surrounded them. They were led by the same young woman who had bothered them last night.

"_You_," groaned Chris.

"Who?" questioned Aviva in confusion. She had no idea who these people were.

Martin took another bite of his granola bar and then pointed at the group of people. "_Them_."

Aviva groaned and put her palm to her face. "Yes, I understand that. But how do you know these people?"

"Last night," Martin said casually as he took another bite of his bar. "These are the people who chased Jup- the thylacine away."

Chris moaned and lay back down. He covered his whole face with the cloth so he couldn't see any of them.

"Yes, yes we were mister- mister," the woman paused and stared at him in suspicion. "Who are _you_?"

Martin finished swallowing the last bite of his snack and then he smiled; offering his hand to be shaken. "I'm Martin Kratt, Chris's brother."

She slapped his hand away gently (at least to her, because Martin didn't seem to like it) and walked over to the table where Chris was laying. She leaned toward his face (not very affective, since it was covered in a cloth) and said to him, "I see you have another friend here." She gestured toward Aviva, who looked terribly confused.

Chris waved his hand at the woman. "Go away. Why would you surround our camp? And why are you questioning us? We don't even know your name?"

_Hmm… this one is very suspicious of me. No matter, I'm suspicious of him as well. We are even. _She paused and smiled strongly, "My name is Ashley. I decided to come here with my neighbors to see why exactly you are so sided with this _creature_?"

The people in the group started to mumble and nod.

Suddenly Chris ripped the rag from his face and shot up. "He is a living being, just like me and you! There are millions of foolish humans all over the world like you that are killing all these living things! He's supposed to be extinct! But he's still here! You should be proud to have this CREATURE NEAR YOU! IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO EXIST!" He paused and shivered as he took a few breathes. "How 'bout that as an answer?"

Most of the neighbors looked at each other as they were startled by the answer. Ashley was totally unmoved. Martin was fairly proud of what his little brother said, but also fairly scared. He knew never to get Chris mad, but this woman didn't. Aviva's were very wide.

Chris was shaking a little. His eyes flared with anger and annoyance.

Ashley was obviously fairly entertained. She obviously wanted to get on his nerves. "Well, Chris, you do seem awfully attached to this one little animal. It doesn't even matter, you realize."

Martin started to back away slowly. He gave a wide eyed that-was-a-big-mistake look at Ashley.

"Oh-ho-ho, so _that's _how it is, huh?" challenged Chris as he stood up proudly. "What if, let's say, all of a sudden- PHOOM!" Chris emphasized the noise by opening his arms, pretending to be an explosion.

Several people jumped back.

"An alien colony lands on earth!" Chris kept his arms wide. He was smiling as he stepped forward; explaining his story.

All the people in front of him took a step back.

"They start building huge cities for their own to live in all over the world!" He made a motion in the air as if he was shaping a globe. "They say 'All these people are getting in our way! They are not our high and intelligent species, so they obviously mustn't have feelings or thoughts.' Guess what they do?"

Martin cocked his head and smiled lightly at his brother's technic. He knew were this was going.

The people looked at one another awkwardly. _This guy is crazy. _

"They kill every last human they can get at. They want them out of their way. Out of their new colony." He looked like he was having a lot of fun scaring these people. "But-," He paused and stared at the people, trying to make them feel concerned. "Suddenly a person, a single person, a secret survivor, comes out of the shadows. This person is weak and hungry, and his only choice is to near the alien city."

Aviva took a step closer. _He's going to play the guilt card_.

"But the aliens are afraid he has come back for revenge. The person can't even get any food because they keep scaring it away." He paused and step toward the people. "Obviously you wouldn't want to be killed by them right?"

Someone nodded, but the person beside him elbowed him in the stomach.

"Well, the aliens in the area want to kill it-" Chris couldn't finish before he was interrupted.

Ashley had had it with his story. She knew what he was going to do. The people were the thylacines. The aliens were the people. He was trying to put the people in the eyes of the creature. She picked up her gun and pointed it against his chest. "Don't say another word."

Chris swallowed. "Afraid? You thought they were going to side with me, didn't you?"

For less than a second, fear flickered in her amber eyes, but she quickly pressed it harder on his chest. When she pressed it harder, she heard a crack. Both she and Chris's eyes widened. They backed away from each other. "What was that noise?" She asked, slightly out of fear, slightly out of suspicion.

Chris swallowed and tapped the part of his chest where she had pressed. "Oh-" before he could even say anything he started to twitch at an alarming rate. Then he stopped and his brown eyes rolled back into his head and he crumpled to the ground. Multiple people gasped and then they all started to approach in concern. Aviva and Martin ran to Chris's side.

"Get away!" yelled Martin angrily. "Just get away! You had no business being here. Get away now!"

The people started to back away, but one woman came out shyly. It was the injured man's wife from last night. "I'm sorry Martin and Chris. All I wanted was to get some ideas on how to keep the creature away from our village. You two obviously know a lot."

"But-," Martin looked at Ashley furiously. "You thought this was a good chance to question us? Didn't you? You're a hunter! You want to kill the animal probably! Don't you?"

Ashley stepped forward a little warily. "Well, no, I mean, the questioning was right, mind you, but-."

"Why did you do that?" asked the wife depressively.

"Heh, but I did want to catch it, not- not kill it. I just want it to stay away from our people, without killing it. These guys won't even let us scare it away!"

The people nodded.

"No," said Martin. "There is a better way to do it. No guns." He paused, put his hand on unconscious Chris's back solemnly, and then stood up. "He won't hurt you if you don't threaten him. Just let 'im eat your garbage! Free recycling!" He paused and rubbed his hand through his blonde hair. "Come on. Just do that for us." He looked back at Chris and Aviva.

Aviva smiled at Martin.

The wife responded, "I'd do that. But I don't know about them."

Suddenly Martin paused. "How-how is your husband?"

She shrugged, "He is in the hospital. He defiantly will live and be perfectly fine after he comes back."

Martin sighed and put his hand to his chest, "Whoa, that's a relief."

"Yeah," she said happily. "But it's best all of us get back home before dark." She paused, "Is he alright?" She pointed at Chris who was lying on Aviva's lap.

"Sheesh!" Martin plopped down beside them. "I have no idea!" He looked at Aviva. "_Is_ he alright?"

"I don't know, MK, I'm afraid his board is short ci-," She bit her tongue to stop herself from talking. These people obviously did not understand the CPS technology. "He's hurt." She attempted lifting him up, but he was limp and heavy.

"Yeah, what _is _wrong with him? What board?" said Ashley suspiciously as she brushed a piece of blonde hair out of her amber eyes.

Aviva held her tongue, but gladly the wife saved her. "Stop being so suspicious, Ashley! You hurt the poor man."

"The poor man?" scoffed Ashley.

"Let's just go," said the wife softly.

A small quintet stood in the forest as the sun went down. They leaned against trees and fiddled with their unloaded guns. In front of them paced the leader: Ashley. She had her gun slung in a bag across her back; her team mates watching her intently. She was explaining a devious plan to them.

"… then we'll catch their tents on fire once they leave."

"Can't harm anybody, or we'll get in trouble," said one of the five.

"Sounds dangerous, what if we get caught, then what, eh mate?"

Ashley narrowed her eyes. "We won't get caught. The tents will get caught… on fire. Then we'll leave. The fire may spread, but it is fairly unlikely. It'll rain tonight, see?" She pointed to the dark clouds orange in the setting sun.

The four others nodded.

"When they come back and their stuff's burned and gone, they'll blame it on their camp fire, which they usually keep lit. If not, we'll light it for them."

Another person in the group questioned this. "Why do we do this?"

"People will blame them for the smoke. They won't have any gear either. They'll be blamed and have nothing. They will _HAVE _to leave." She paused and leaned against the tree. "With them gone, we can catch the thylacine."

"Just don't kill it!"

"We mustn't disobey the scientist!"

"I know," Ashley responded, "But who said we couldn't sell it? Let's go burn some tents mates."

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**Dun Dun DUN! X3 Well that's as far as I've written... the next chapter will get a little... tense... Please review! I very much enjoy these lovely reviews I've been getting.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Woo! I've done another chapter!**

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**Chapter 5**

Chris lay worn on his sleeping bag. His eyelids were heavy with sleep and his body was numb and tired. He rolled over. "Ughn- I'm so tired, but I can't sleep." Rolling onto his back again, he moaned to himself, "Mustn't sleep. I need to see what happens." He blinked three times, but on the fourth time, his eyes did not reopen. He had drifted into a deep sleep.

The rest of the team had left Chris to settle himself down. Aviva and went to a nearby store to buy new tools to turn off Chris's suit. Martin had taken a walk deep in the forest to clear his mind. Jimmy was still cowering in the safety of the Tortuga, and Koki had been gone for the past few days on a visit to her old friend's house.

Now was the perfect time for attack, but little did they know a Kratt was resting inside.

"Ash?" whispered a man quietly. "Are they all gone?"

She put her finger to her lips as a sign to hush. She stepped out cautiously from behind a tree. After a moment of silence, she signaled to her team that the ghost was clear. The five of them approached the camp. Ashley pointed to the campfire. "Ready the torches."

Each of them touched a stick they were holding to the dancing orange flames. The fire hungrily grasped at the sticks and soon the sticks were lit with the burning flames.

"Now, the tents," She pointed to the blue and purple tents.

After a couple seconds of reluctance, the men stepped forward and slashed their torches at the tents. The fire reached out, and at the first chance, they pounced onto the tents and they went up in bright flames.

"Good, very good." Ashley looked at the flames with an evil greed. The fire reflected in her bright amber eyes, igniting the dark and frightening fuse within them.

The four men looked at each other anxiously. "Ma'am? Shouldn't we go?"

She turned and glared at him. "Fine, it is best we leave this fire to the rain." She looked up at the clouds, and then motioned for her men to follow her as she turned to go.

Martin had his hands in the pockets of his khaki shorts. He kicked every stone that was sitting misplaced in the middle of the path.

Suddenly he heard a rustle from within the bushes. He stopped and approached them slowly. Then he peeked quietly behind the leaves, but what he saw made him gasped. It was a male thylacine!

Martin reached for his creature-pod, totally breathless as he did, but it wasn't there. He let out an exasperated sigh, yet he smiled and shrugged it off. "At least I get to see you, little buddy." His eyes lit up as he dropped to his knees and hands to watch it.

It cocked its head and put its cold nose against Martin's cheek. "Hey watch it!" He laughed playfully as he turned his head away. "Wow your incredible!"

The thylacine yawned, opening his huge jaws.

"Look at those wide jaws! If I was a small mammal I'd be real scared of you." Martin wondered at the awesome animal. Suddenly he noticed something about the male's right ear. There were three tears on the edge of his ear. They looked like they had been made by a trap. "Oh," he said sadly. "You just barely made it out of a trap. Glad you made it," he paused for a moment, "Neptune. Yeah, you look like a Neptune to me."

In his dream, Chris was running through a forest fire. His lungs were filled with painful fumes. His eyes were tearing up with pain. He was definitely running from something. Suddenly, a large furry creature lunged at him, claws ready to strike. He shot up in his sleeping bag. He took a sudden breath in, but he coughed and sputtered as he did. His eyes were still stinging. Hardly having any time to react, he screamed out, "FIRE! THERE'S A FIRE!" The heat around him was intense, and he was already sweating and stirred by the nightmare. But now he was stuck in a tent on fire… _what luck! _

Coincidently, Koki had returned from her trip at that moment. She came casually walking up to the camp. "Hey guys, I'm- OH MY GOSH A FIRE!" Terrified, she got as close as she felt comfortable to the fire. She screamed, "IS ANYONE IN THERE?! AVIVA?! BROS?!"

For a few moments that felt like forever, she got no response, but then suddenly she heard a muffled response from within the boys' tent. "Koki! Help! I'm trapped!"

Koki had no idea what to do. She looked around frantically for a bucket of water, but the fire would have been too much for that anyway. She turned, fear gripping her heart, and yelled back, "I'M GOING TO THE VILLAGE TO GET HELP!" And with that she turned, absolutely terrified, and fled screaming for help to the village.

Chris, on the other hand, did not like her idea. "NO! DON'T LEAVE!" He knew by the time she would return, it would be too late for him. He had save himself. The heat and stinging tears blurred his vision. The smoke in his lungs made him dizzy as he coughed violently. But he kept his eyes locked on the tent flap… always on the tent flap. He was waiting for the perfect moment to… jump! The flames opened up for a split second and he dived forward and out of the tent.

Howling in pain as he flew into the open, he tumbled head-over-heals into a tree. Quickly, he stood up. Chris rubbed the soot from his brown eyes and coughed the smoke out from inside him. "Hot, hot, hot!" he panted exasperatedly as he rubbed his burning skin. After a few short moments he looked up to the sky. "It better rain!" He turned his attention back to the flames. They had spread onto the grass now. "Oh no! RUN!" he screamed into the night. "FOREST FIRE! THERE'S A FOREST FIRE! HE-_LPPP_!" His voice cracked like a lightning bolt as he exploded with green light.

The now tazzy Chris hightailed it to the deep forest as soon as the heat reached his fur. Now Taz had to worry about something other than hunters. He had to run, because flames have no mercy.

As Martin watched the T-tiger sniff for food awe, the T-tiger sudden twitched his ear and darted away.

"Hey! Come back!" Martin called out to him. "Aww, Come on, Neptune! I'm not gonna hurt you!" But he paused and listened before he said anything else. He heard the sound of something crackling in the distance. The environment seemed to heat up 10 degrees in 5 seconds. Martin breathed in deeply, but when he did so his throat started to sting as if a cat reached down in there and scratched him with its claws. He sputtered and coughed. "Yugh, what's going on?"

Suddenly trees in the distance started to grow a violent and bright orange and the crackling got louder. _I thought I put that campfire out! _He thought alarmed. _OH NO! CHRIS WAS STILL IN THE TENT! _Martin darted deep into the forest and started to circle the flames to get to the other side. "I'm coming for you, bro!"

As Koki ran towards the town, she could still feel the heat of the fire on her dark skin. She was starting to think it wasn't the best idea to have left Chris in the tent, but what else could she have done? She quickened her pace and prayed for the brothers' safety.

She eventually came tripping out into a street. She was breathing heavily after all the running. Koki wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked at the forest. The fire was growing fast. She could see a huge column of sparks and smoke towering into the sky. Approaching a small house, she rang the doorbell with urgency.

She heard someone run to the door. Whoever it was obviously knew something was wrong. If not, why on earth would someone be ringing the doorbell at 11:00 pm? The door swung open. A woman stood there, sleep still in her eyes. She had short and shiny deep brown hair. "What-what's going on?"

"Um, ma'am, sorry for waking you at this hour," Koki stuttered, out of breath. "But there's a forest fire! One of my- er- friends is stuck in it!"

"What?" said the woman in alarm. She stepped out of her small house and took a look at the forest. "Oh my goodness! We have to warn the neighbors!" Then the woman ran into her house again. "I'm calling the fire department! You go get the other people out of their houses!"

"Will do!" said Koki shakily. She darted into the street; glancing back at the spreading fire from time to time. She rang everyone's doorbells. She told them to get out of the houses because of a quickly spreading fire. Some of the people even helped her evacuate the people.

Families and their children huddled in the street in their pajamas. The little children's eyes were filled with fear as they clutched their parents' arms. All the people were crying out to each other. They were moaning and complaining.

"What luck!" said one man. "A monster and now a fire!"

"I wonder what caused it?"

"My poor house! I just bought it!"

"What about my toys?"

Koki felt sick in her stomach. She knew that the campfire had started it, but it was so confined. How on earth could the flames get out of the fire pit? They couldn't, unless someone let them out. Koki shook the thought out of her head.

"Look! The fire men are here!" Cried the woman Koki had met earlier.

All the people, including Koki, started to cheer. Koki peeked at the forest again. The flames were dangerously close to the village at this point.

A few of the firemen all dressed in their previously burned gear came out and tried the settle the people. A few police cars pulled up too.

The captain of the fire squad called out to his members, "Let's go, go, go! We've got a fire to stop!"

The people cheered as the fire truck neared the forest. Some of the men readied the hoses on the truck. Others hooked up the hoses to the street's fire hydrant.

Koki turned away with a nervous look on her face. Would she and her team get blamed?

Martin was surrounded by the flames. His blonde hair was drenched with sweat, along with his blue jacket. He was unable to make it to camp before it was completely obliterated. Martin continued to worry for his brother with a sick and deepening feeling. He kind of felt like he would throw up.

Martin tore off his blue shirt and threw it into the bushes, only leaving on his white undershirt on. The world was rippling with heat waves, like the ones floating off black pavement in the heat of summer. "Chris!" He called desperately. "Chris! CHRIS, WHERE ARE YOU, BRO?!" He knew he had to get himself out of the forest. He hoped Chris had gotten himself out.

The brother felt the heat slap him on the back. He jumped forward with a scream. "OUCH!" The flames had started engulfing the tree beside him. "Oh crud." He ran forward, but was stopped by another burst of flames. _If only I could get to the river!_ Martin lunged forward into a gap with no flames, but he had jumped out over a hill and went tumbling down it.

When he sat up, he realized he was in an opening in the forest. It had not caught on fire yet, but that wouldn't be true for long. Without wasting a second, he ran across the opening and into the forest on the other side. "Now where did they say the river was?"

Suddenly he heard a twig crack somewhere near him. "Hello?" he said. "Neptune is that you?" He approached the sound slowly and his hopes rose, "Chris?"

A bush in front of him shifted to reveal a pair of glowing eyes.

"Well that's _not _Chris," he said disappointedly. He looked back towards the meadow. The flames had started to hungrily engulf it. "Yikes. You better get a move on. So should I." Martin started to think of how many animals probably would die in this fire. He made a disgusted face. "Whoever started this fire is an idiot."

Whatever was in the bush growled.

"What? I'm sorry if I offended you, but I need to get out of here." Martin turned and started to run for it, but he heard the crack again and then a loud thud. There were the two glowing eyes in front of him again. Whatever it was, it was _big_. Martin started to get nervous. "Okay- could you not do that-"

Everything got too hot too fast. The flames roared around them and engulfed the trees. Instinctively, Martin ducked down. The creature however, roared with pain.

Martin got up quickly. The flames had surrounded him once again, but this time he wasn't alone. He was with-with, _what was it? _

The creature stepped forward into the orange light of the flames. It was making a rumbling sound from deep within its throat. Before Martin could even react, he screamed at the top of his lungs, "JUPITER!"

Koki was trying her hardest to get the attention of one of the fire men or even the police. But they just waved her off; saying, "We have a job to do, ma'am, please back off."

For multiple minutes now they had been spraying the fire nearest to the neighborhood with violent blasts of water from the thick heavy fire hoses. But once the fire had retreated into the dry of the forest, they turned to the townspeople. "We are going into the forest now. You may return to your houses, but keep a look out."

The people didn't look at all relieved, Koki the least of them all. The brothers _still _hadn't emerged from the forest. They were in trouble. "WAIT!" she called to them.

The fire men turned to face her, impatient. "Yes, what do you want?"

"There are two people still stuck in that fire! Please rescue them!"

The lead of the group pointed to a group of fire men. "You five, Get in there! Go now!"

Koki sighed in relief, "Thank you."

The lead nodded and then ordered the rest of the men to ready the truck. They were soon heading into the forest.

The lady from earlier approached Koki, "What were your friends doing in the middle of the forest this late at night?"

"Um, well," Koki hesitated. She didn't want to bring up the camp. Then they would obviously be blamed for fire. "They were out for a walk. They're a little bit strange." _Phew. That was close. _But Koki knew this wasn't going to be the last of the questions.

"Nice Jupy," stuttered Martin nervously, sweat dripping from his brow. "Nice T-tiger. Good tiger." He continued to back away from the dark creature as it approached him. His heart was beating much faster, and the tiger could sense it. _Don't run. Running makes you prey. Prey is weak. Don't be weak._

The creature continued to close in on Martin. His glowing eyes were slit and his sharp fang snagged the edge of his mouth as he growled menacingly. His dark silhouette was frightening against the orange flames.

"Please, just don't hurt me. 'Kay Jup?" Martin grinned, but he was actually sick to his stomach. He was stuck in a circle of flames, about to be attacked by an animal that was supposed to be extinct. Not a happy thought. Martin took a few more steps back, but he stepped on a dry twig under his brown hiking boot. It made a loud snap. _Oh shoot._

The huge dark T-tiger roared, rearing up on his sturdy strong legs.

"Oh my god, its _huge_,'' groaned Martin hopelessly. He was cornered. Death by fire or death by thylacine? Neither sounded particularly pleasing to Martin. He toppled over as he backed up, and then started to crab crawl away. He eventually backed into a tree.

Suddenly Martin noticed something glowing lightly on the monster's chest. His stinging blue eyes widened. It was a piece of glass. It looked like it had been a part of a _button_. "CHRIS?!" Martin screamed at the top of his lungs.

'Jupiter' grabbed Martin's shoulders and roared in his sweating burnt face.

Martin screamed terrified. Then Tazzy drove Martin onto the dry rough ground. He leaned down into his face again and flared his nostrils. His eyes glowed with a furious manner, as they were slit in the most possible ways. He growled.

Martin tried to pull away, but he couldn't under Tazzy's weight. He continued to struggle under his forceful pressing and made pained grunts as he did. Martin was beginning to weaken, and tears started to fill his eyes. He looked into Tazzy's. He saw the familiar chocolate brown iris around the pupil. It was his brother. "Chris." He said weakly; tears streaming down his burning cheeks, "It's me, Martin. Your _brother_."

Tazzy completely ignored this remark. He bared his incredibly sharp fangs and roared as loud as the fire around them. He rose up, bracing the screaming Martin with his legs, and readied his claws in the air; eyes glittering with anger and fire.

"CHRIS!" cried Martin. "I'M YOUR BROTHER!" He was sobbing for mercy… from his own brother.

Chris, with one final roar, slashed down at Martin's side with an angry strength. Martin let out loud scream that echoed throughout the forest. "CHRISSSSS!" When the seemingly endless cry weakened; it became a sob.

As if the screaming had finally gotten to the real Chris's head, a green flash changed his forms. His head still pounded from the scream. He was so confused, so lost. What was going on? He looked down, eyes still wide from fear. Chris's body was shaking wearily. He then noticed who he lying on. _Martin_.

Martin's eyes were squeezed closed and he was sobbing terribly as he clutched his arm. Chris's eyes got wider. There was blood stained all Martin's white shirt. Red liquid puddled on the ground glittered in the fire. "Oh god, _no_. No, no, no, no, no." Chris lifted his tired arm to his face. Chris almost died at the sight. More blood. _Martin's _blood.

Chris got up, unable to speak. He slowly backed away. He was shivering, clutching his hand to his chest, as he stared at his brother. "Martin, _what have I done?_"

Martin opened his eyes at his name. They were pink and pained from the fire and his tears. "C-Chris? B-bro?"

"N-no," said Chris, still hardly able to even breathe. "Martin, get away from me."

Martin started to sit up, but groped at his chest and bleeding arm.

"No, Martin!" Chris ordered with his voice shaking. "Get away from me! Stay away!" He turned, tears building in his own eyes. "I'm a _monster_."

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**Oh gosh *sobs* I can't take writing this chapter. It's just so *sobs*. No Chris, you're not a monster ;n; Sorry, another bad cliff hanger. Bad, bad Greenbramble. Review pwease? 030 It will make me feel better *sobs* **


	7. Chapter 6

Kay o-o' I know it's been a while, but... I have a new chapter so don't complain. I've been having trouble wanting to _work_ on this story. I just didn't want to write it for a while, I wasn't in the mood, so deal with it.

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**Chapter 6**

Koki turned her head when she heard a sound rise from the blazing forest. She couldn't exactly tell what the sound was, but it didn't sound good. She turned nervously back to the people, "Did you hear that?"

More than one person nodded.

She swallowed. "It didn't sound good."

One of the people spoke to her. "Didn't you say your friend was in the fire?"

"Y-yes."

"Maybe that's what that sound was."

"Or maybe," said another person, "It was the _animal_."

Some of the people in the group gasped worriedly.

Suddenly a group of people, dripping with sweat and covered in ashes, burst out from behind a house. The person in the lead was breathing heavily and she collapsed on her knees in front of all the stirred up villagers. "The fire _spread_." She said heavily as she put her hands to her face.

Koki eyed her strangely. "What do you mean? Of course it spread."

The woman looked up at her; she did not recognize her, neither did she know she was teamed with the two brothers. But she wasn't going to tell anybody what she did. She had to lie. "I saw-I saw what started the fire." Ashley looked down sadly, so not to show the lies written on her face. "It was that _thing_ from last night."

Koki cocked her head; she didn't know what was going on.

"Surely you know?" said one of Ashley's men, catching on to the trick. "A giant monster has returned from years of hiding. It tried killing our villagers."

The children huddled frightened against their parents.

Koki thought she remembered something about that on the radio before she left. She remembered Chris's reaction. Did he know something she didn't? Have the people met him? Koki felt uncomfortable bringing her team up. "Okay-okay, but how exactly did _it _start the fire? I mean, come on, it doesn't just take torches and catch stuff on fire."

Ashley stood silent for a few seconds, feeling more and more guilty by the second. "Well… It ran through a campfire in the woods and went barreling into a tent."

_Wait? Did she just say tents and a campfire? _Koki knew she was talking about their camp. But she said it ran _into_ a tent. Chris would have noticed if it ran into his tent, but the girls' tent wasn't knocked over. It should have been if the animal was really that big. Something was going on here, but then Koki remembered how she left poor Chris inside the tent. What was he doing their alone anyway? "But-but-Our tent wasn't knocked ov-." _Oops._

The woman raises her eyebrows, both suspiciously and nervously. "_Your _camp. What do you mean _your _camp?"

Koki was about to say something when the woman she warned first spoke up. "She said she had a friend in the forest who was caught in the fire."

Koki gave the woman a sharp glare.

Ashley got up and approached Koki with a frightening look in her eye. "Who are you?"

Koki swallowed. "Um, I'm Koki, and I'm an experienc-."

Suddenly another person burst out into the open, sputtering, coughing, and tripping over herself.

"Who is it _now_," said someone from the crowd in annoyance.

Whoever-it-was came stumbling up to Koki. She had dark hair and stormy grey eyes. "Aviva!" cried Koki unsettled as she reached out for her weak friend.

"Wait. _Aviva?_" said Ashley half alarmed. "You're-you're that girl from the… from the _campsite_." Suddenly she froze dead in her spot, eyes wide. "You know each other? And your friend was stuck in the…" She collapsed to her knees, and her neighbors and friends surrounded her in worry.

Koki looked at Aviva in fear. "What is it? Where were you?"

"Koki!" moaned Aviva frantically. "Where's Chris? I-I left him in the tent! And I-and I- the whole forest-," she sobbed as she looked at the flames slowly being put out by the fire men. "The whole camp was on fire," she hiccupped, "And I left him in the tent! I-bet-I bet he, and what about Martin- their burned to a cr-," she couldn't complete her thought before she started choking from her crying and the smoke.

"It's alright!" said Koki reassuringly patting her friend's back. "I told the firemen to go a find him! He and Martin'll be alright." But Koki wasn't sure this was the truth.

…

Chris ran blindly through the flaming forest. Wiping tears from his stinging eyes as he fled, he ran away, feeling like a worthless jerk, to the river in the middle of the forest.

He then collapsed, tripping over his own numb legs, at the bottom of a tree lucky enough to be untouched by the fire. Smoke was everywhere. It blotted out the tops of the now mostly burnt to a crisp trees. It gathered into the already grey and clouded night. Embers still glowed on the ashy ground and along most of the trees. Chris could still hear the sirens of the fire trucks and the crackle of the flames raging far in the distance. He attempted to breathe steadily, but he coughed out. His throat was raw and seared.

Chris leaned over the dark river, at least 20 feet wide and 8 feet deep, and tried to wipe the tears and ashes out of his burning eyes. He rubbed the left side of his face wearily, but he pulled his hand back when his skin started to sting and crack. He touched it gingerly and took shallow breath as he peered into the almost black water. He could hardly see himself, but he could tell that side of his face was oddly darker than it should be.

He sniffed sadly as the tears plopped into the water. Leaning back against the tree, Chris rubbed the un-burnt side of his face before he clutched both of his hands to his chest. He looked up at the low and toxic smoke above him and started to sob quietly.

_You're such a selfish jerk! You should have known you were going crazy since the start! Why didn't you take the suit off? You're an idiot! _Chris scorned himself harshly and he continued to remorse. _Now you're a monster trying to sabotage poor people! You almost killed you're brother as well! _Chris looked down, noticing he probably had Martin's blood on his shirt. Chris bit his lip.

Suddenly a lump caught in his throat. It was big and painful. Tears started spilling out of his eyes faster. He couldn't keep the lump down, so it flew out. It flew out of his throat as a remorseful grieving cry. He burst out into tears. He couldn't help himself.

Curling into a ball, he held himself close, trying to keep himself from crying louder. He bit his lip harder, but he made sucking noise as he swallowed a cry. He made a high pitch sound from within his throat; his mouth was opened slightly, but his jaws were closed tight as he tried to keep from screaming. More high pitched moans and lamentation came from him as he put his hands behind his head and pulled himself closer to the ground.

At this point it seemed too impossible to think. All his thoughts came out in short painful rasps. "I left him in the fire. I left him bleeding in the fire." He kept rasping and coughing; his mouth was in an odd shape as he tried to resist. "No! What if he _died_?" Chris sobbed hopelessly. "I'm such a mon-_ster_." His voice cracked and he continued to sob. He felt as if he could cry a river. Looking up, he was hardly able to see through all his tears. He let out a long exasperated breath. "MARTIN! I'm so _sorry_!" He pulled himself up against the tree trunk and cried out into the world, tears still stinging his face.

Chris took a sudden sharp breath, which was a huge mistake. Thick dark smoke filled his lungs and he collapsed. Wheezing and dizzy headed, Chris took another breath and was knocked out cold. He lay there, splayed between the tree roots, shivering out of grief and fear.

…..

The firemen attacked the seemingly endless fire with their hoses. The powerful jet-streams of water blasted the blazing trees and the smoking earth.

"Have you found anyone yet?" yelled the leading man over the sounds of the fire and the water.

"No, not yet," replied another.

The leader shouted back to them, "Three of you go on a search party! We haven't found the missing person yet. Go, go, go!"

"Yes sir!" cried three men at the back of the hose. They turned from him quickly and ran off into the forest.

The three of them were wearing all the masks and padding they could wear as they lunged into the flames. A huge burst of fire blew out behind them, and they dived down, but they ended up tumbling down a small hill. They quickly stood up and kept running.

The first of them looked back at the other two to check if they were both there. They were. He called back to them as they kept running, "How long has it been since we left the group?"

The second one looked down at the ashy watch on his wrist and responded, "Only five minutes."

"Wow," laughed the first half-heartedly. "When you're in a real life-risking situation times slows, doesn't it."

"You got that right, mate," said the last one as they continued to run deeper into the forest.

Eventually they entered a thicker part of the forest, where the trees had mostly burned and many had fallen over. They stood there for a moment to catch their breath.

"We better keep going! The flames are still in the area." He pointed to the trees far in front of them. They were still burning away what little they had left. "I've never wanted it to rain this much before," he scoffed as he looked up at the clouds. "Burst already!"

They continued at a pace, but the second one stopped suddenly. The third ran into him.

The first one quickly noticed that his crew hadn't followed, and whipped around. "Is something wrong?" He began to walk back to them.

The second one pointed out into the dark forest. "When the fire got brighter, I thought I saw someone lying on the ground."

The third one nodded agreeably.

"Let's go then!" the first man ordered as he marched off in that direction. The other two soon followed.

Apparently the second man was right. As the fire got brighter, he could recognize a silhouette shaped as a human across the ground. "Come on!" he shouted as he picked up the pace.

The three fire men knelt down next to the person quickly and did a fast check up on him. He was alive, most definitely, but had a large bleeding wound across his chest and right arm.

"What the heck happened to him?"

"I have no clue," said the first fireman worriedly, "But we need to get him out of here fast." He pulled out his walkie-talkie from his thick sooty belt and hit the call button.

He soon heard a fuzzy voice respond, "D-d you fin- -im y-t?" He could only make out so many sounds, but he could understand it after years of listening to voices through static.

He hit a button and spoke loudly and clearly, "Yep! He's injured though. We might need backup!"

"Alr-ght, we're com-ng –n."

The first man returned the walkie-talkie to his belt. "Quince?" he said to the second man. "Try getting the man to wake up."

The second man pulled the injured person up and shook him slightly. "Mister, mister, we need you to wake up."

The first man rolled his eyes, "Get out of my way!"

Quince side stepped quickly. The first man pulled an oxygen mask from his belt and strapped it around the person's face. Without hesitating he switched it on. The person gasped in the fresh air and his blue eyes flew open. The three men quickly gathered around him.

"That's enough," said one of the firemen quickly as he switched the mask off and pulled it away.

The person sputtered and coughed wildly as he groped at his chest, "Where-_choke_-what-_choke_-Where is my-_choke_-brother?" The man hissed with pain as he grabbed harder at his bleeding arm.

"Calm down," said Quince. "We're here to get you out of this fire."

The person just persisted, "Where-_cough_- is he?"

"Who? Where is who, man?" scoffed one of them in annoyance.

"My-_choke_- brother-_cough_- Chris!" The person soon started a mad coughing fit.

The men eyed each other with concern.

Suddenly another group of fire men burst through the flames. "We're here!" They called.

The first man stood up, "There is _another_ man in these flames!"

"Yes," choked the person.

"Hush you," warned Quince quietly.

"We need to find him! All you get this here man back to town."

"What about-," the person hardly finished his sentence before he started to wheeze hysterically.

"We'll find him," said the first man the other two he came with. They turned and ran off into the forest once again.

Two of the other firemen shook their head solemnly. The men all helped the injured person up. The leader asked him, "What's your name, eh?"

"Martin," he choked, "a Wild Kratt."

….

Chris woke up to the sound of approaching footsteps. He stood up quickly, but the dizziness in his head caused him to stumble backwards a few steps. He heard the footsteps getting even closer. "Get-get back!" he said wearily. His face was sticky with tears and his eyes glittered with terrible regret. "Get away from me!"

Three men wearing thick fireproof suits and helmets came out toward him.

Chris blinked tiredly. He didn't want to hurt anyone else. "I told you to stay away! Stay back!" He backed up.

The people continued to approach, despite his warning. They eyed each other nervously.

"Get away!" Chris snarled with his starting to glow, but he soon slapped his shaking hands over his mouth. He realized that anger is what made him turn into a monster. He needed to control himself. "Please," he moaned as he kept stepping back, "Go away from me."

"It's alright, we're here to help you," said one of them.

"Stay away!" he shouted nervously. He stepped back again, but tripped over a root and backed unknowingly towards the river.

"Hey! Don't do that!" shouted one of the firemen, jumping forward in case he fell in.

But the jump startled Chris more than the man expected, and he jumped back into the river.

"Quince you idiot!" shouted the first man disapprovingly.

Quince ignored the harsh treatment and he himself lunged into the river.

Chris hardly had time to think as he was swept away in the river. His body got suddenly cold, which was only relieving from the burns for a few seconds. It soon started to get to him. He shot toward the surface and gasped in air, but his weak state only allowed him to stay above for a short moment. Chris was soon sucked back under. His brain was still terribly tired and pained from the stress that had been put on him. Soon his world faded away into the darkness of the river.

Quince popped up above the river multiple times to keep his lungs full as he swam after Chris. The other two men had been fairly surprised at the act. Quince wasn't the bravest of the bunch.

He popped back up again and looked around for the person, for it was too dark to see underwater. He caught a glimpse of the green jacket he was wearing and dove in that direction.

Reaching his hands out blindly in front of him, he grabbed onto his arm and pulled him up. Quickly, he dragged him out of the water and onto the bank.

Quince sputtered and rubbed himself a few times, before kneeling down next to the man and trying to wake him.

The other two men came running down the bank to greet him, clapping and cheering. Quince was rather proud, but he had no time to rejoice. This man needed saving. "Help me, you two!"

They quickly stopped cheering at his seriousness and plopped down next to him. The first man gave him CPR, for he had been trained in it, and soon the man was coughing the water out of his lungs. He did not awake though, and Quince knew something was wrong.

"He was acting quite delirious before, wasn't he?" pointed out Quince.

The first man nodded. "Yes, but we should take him back to the village to be with his brother-."

"Of course of this is the right man."

"True, but he is small and light. I think we can carry him."

The other two nodded and they hoisted him up. Off they went towards the village, unaware of who he was.

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There you are. Hopefully the format doesn't give me a bad time. And it's about time Ashley felt guilty, but don't worry bad Ashley will be back. :D Anywaysss... How do like Quince? I kinda like him, but whatev, I wasn't expecting him to be a main character, but he might. Maybe...

BUT REVIEWWWWW! This story (*cough* and me *cough) is lonely and it wants more reviews again! :3


	8. Chapter 7

**Hello again, peeps. Hope you like this chapter. It's just a -um- fill in. OuO' Soo yah. You basically learn more about the characters, that's about it.**

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The firemen rushed the man called 'Martin' out of the forest as fast as they could. They had returned the oxygen mask to his face because he was having a severe breathing problem. The injury didn't help the poor man either. That made the firemen wonder where it had come from, but they had no time to ask.

Paramedics came flying towards the firemen as they placed the man on the ground.

"We need help! We need help over here! We have an emergency!" called some of the firemen.

More paramedics came running to them. The firemen backed off from the paramedics and attempted to keep away the crowd.

Most of the villagers had already backed away from Ashley and Aviva, and headed towards the bustling paramedics.

"What's going on now!"

"Did they find the missing person?"

"Is someone dying?"

Multiple firemen used themselves as a barricade so to keep the people at a far enough distance. "Please back off!" yelled the firemen at the people. "It is safe enough to return to your houses, is it not?"

The people continued to press forward.

"Please back off!"

Ashley stood up slowly; fear and guilt only leaving her eyes after she had straightened all the way up.

"We're in trouble, aren't we?" said one of her men.

She breathed in nervously and then shot back at him in full force, "Shut up, idiot. Don't say _anything_, or we're toast. Just keep lying."  
"But I don't like ly-."

"_Shut up_." She turned from them with a swish of her blonde ponytail. Then she pushed her way through the crowds of people and firemen. "Get out of my way!"

No one hesitated. Of course, because who would want a lady with a gun to get mad at them?

She stepped through them and looked down menacingly at the man the paramedics were helping. She recognized him immediately. It was that Chris's brother. "Oh, you little j-." Ashley noticed the huge scrape marks across his chest that were being treated with antibiotics. She also noticed his shallow breathing. Leaning down close to his face with her eyes slit, she whispered to him, "What has your precious beast done to you now? Do you feel so loving to it _now_?"

He looked at her through the oxygen mask with pleading eyes as if he was trying to convey something. _Please, don't talk to me about that. Please._

She smiled and stood up, "You've lost this fight."

When she said that, something snapped inside him. He ripped the mask from his face and sat up, grabbing at his bloody side. "I am not _done_ with you, I will not lose this. I will never-." He breathed in sharply and groped at his side franticly. The paramedics surrounded him.

One paramedic turned to Ashley, "Get away from him."

"_Fine_," Ashley said with a bratty smirk. She pushed her way through the crowd and stood in front of the crowd.

"Who was it in there?" called one person to her.

"Yeah!" said another.

"Chris's brother!" she responded proudly.

"Martin!" cried Aviva and Koki as they attempted to push through the firemen.

"Sorry, girls. He can't go with anymore riling up."

Ashley smirked back at the two girls. "Oh don't worr-…."

Three more firemen burst out into the open. Everyone turned. The men were covered in ashes, and one was soaked to the bone. They were all attempting to carry another man.

"Captian!" The three men cried.

The lead fireman stepped out of the wall and rushed toward them, "Thank god! You found him."

They set the man down. "Yeah," said one of them. "I'm afraid something's very wrong with him. He was extremely skittish and fell into the river."

"No kidding," scoffed the soaked Quince.

The Captian glared at him, but quickly turned to the man on the ground. "We better get the paramedics over he- wait a minute, mates…I think this is the other man." He shifted to the muttering crowd and announced, "We've found the other man!"

Cheers and whistles let up from the townspeople, especially from Aviva and Koki who burst out into joyful tears and screams. Well _almost_ everyone, except Ashley and her men. She scowled angrily. He could be the one to rat them out, but she decided to lean the peoples' beliefs toward what she wanted as soon as possible. "Hey!"

The peoples' attention was diverted from the firemen.

"Thank you," she breathed to them. She stepped forward casually and began to talk. "This fire, as many of you may have been thinking, was not on accident."

The people mumbled and nodded. Koki looked down nervously.

"I was out in the forest with my fellow hunters," she gestured to her men, "And we saw what started the fire."

The people continued to mutter as they shifted impatiently.

"The monster everyone has been talking about has struck again!"

Multiple cries and gasps came from the crowd. Frightened children whined and grabbed onto their parents skittishly.

"It ran through a camp fire, and when it was startled," she paused for a moment, "BANG! I tried to kill the brute, but he ran into one of the tents and caught the whole forest on fire." She swished her ponytail to the side. "We hardly made it out of the forest."

Koki suddenly felt very defensive of her and her team. She stepped away from Aviva and stood right in front of Ashley. She narrowed her eyes and stood up straight, but she was still no match to Ashley's height. "I don't think you're telling us the whole story. My friend Martin," she gestured to the wall of firemen, "_always_ puts the camp fire out."

Aviva nodded agreeably and stood next to her friend confidently. "I _saw_ him put it out."

More people muttered and shifted. The firemen glanced at each other. The paramedics took no notice as they continued working on Martin's wounds.

"Well I saw the monster run into your _lit _campfire," retorted Ashley strongly. All her men nodded.

"W-we were there as well. We saw the thing," responded one of her men.

Ashley smiled her thanks to the man.

As the girls continued to argue their points in front of the onlookers, the three fire men, their captain, and some paramedics tried to figure out was wrong with Martin's brother. The three firemen, who rescued him from the forest, including Quince, explained that he had been acting bizarre when they first approached him.

"Hmmm," muttered the Captain, "What exactly _did_ he say?"

"Exactly what we told you," sighed Quince. "He kept telling us to get away from him and to back off."

"Must've been delusional," suggested the first fireman.

The second fireman cut in, "Didn't you see what happened to his brother? He had huge scrape marks across his chest. Maybe he thought we were the-"

"Thing?" Quince finished. "I heard something about a monster on the radio the other day….said it was a tazzy tiger."

The firemen eyed each other. "Do they even get that big?"

Quince shrugged.

One of the paramedics tapped the captain's shoulder gently. "Excuse me sir for interrupting your conversation," she said shyly, "But I think we've found the problem."

The men turned towards her. "We're all ears."

"Nothing seems terribly wrong with him. No cuts, bruises, oozing, or internal bleeding. He just seems to have a little burn on his face."

"Actually," pointed out another paramedic, "There is something wrong with him."

"There is?"

"What's wrong, then, eh?" Quince snorted.

"Well, sir, he is breathing awkwardly. His skin is also strangely… static-y."

The men eyed each other again. "What do you _mean _he is static-y?"

"Well," he said nervously, "It's like he's been over-electrocuted. He-he's acting as some sort of conductor."

"Over-electrocuted? How do you suppose he got over-electrocuted, man? Does that mean it's possible be under-electrocuted as well?" challenged Quince harshly. "You must be under-electrocuted, mate, let me shock you."

"Quiet, Quince," ordered the captain.

"Y-yes sir," responded Quince nervously.

The captain turned to the paramedic and glared at him, "I need _facts_. What is going on?"

"I swear, I don't know! I've never seen anything like-."

The man's eyes flew open. The 5 of them were silent. His eyes were glowing as if someone had plugged him into an _electric circuit_. They glanced at each other nervously as the man's eyes slowly turned towards them.

"Hello, mate?" Quince said skittishly as if he was afraid that the man was going to bite him.

The man's pupils shrunk and his chest rose and fell in an awkward un-rhythmic beat. He bared his canines a little bit and started to crab walk away from them. The female paramedic grabbed his wrist and pressed it against the ground, "Hush," she said. "We're here to help."

The man shook his head and he shrunk back fearfully. She pressed her hand against his chest to calm him, but she pulled back when she felt a sharp pain and electric current. He screamed out loudly in a non-human-like way and grabbed at the place she touched. The crowd of people turned to stare. The children cowered more.

The firemen yelled at everyone around them, "Back off, back away!" Everyone, including themselves, backed away.

The man was on his hands and knees. He turned his head to the breathless crowd. His eyes were wide and hysterical with fear. He was breathing loud enough and sharp enough for the whole crowd to hear him. Then he put his hand to his chest and let out a raspy desperate voice, "_Save me._"

A few of the people screamed when he started to growl. Some of the firemen started to approach him cautiously, but Aviva jumped up and yelled out, "DON'T TOUCH HIM!" She paused as the people stared at her in alarm. "Don't touch him."

"_Aviva_," he rasped horribly to her, "_help_."

She started to walk forward, but she felt a tug on her wrist. She turned. A little girl with pigtails was tugging on her shirt, "Don't go. I don't want you to get hurt."

Ashley grabbed the girl away from Aviva. "You can't tell her what to do, little sis. Just let her try to fix her maniac friend, Chris."

Aviva looked at the little girl worriedly and then at Ashley hatefully. "I _will,_ thank you very much." She confidently marched up to Chris.

The firemen were ready to make a move incase anything happened, but she ignored them. Kneeling down in front of Chris, she waited silently for a moment. Nobody moved. Nobody talked. She saw him shaking weakly. "Taz," she said silently enough so no one could hear her. "Hello, Tazzy Chris." She shifted closer to him, smiling softly.

Some of the people shifted uncomfortably. Quince looked like he was about to pounce. Koki clutched her hands together as she hoped and wished Aviva luck.

Suddenly Aviva made a fast movement toward Chris. Before the people could notice what she was doing, she had already wrapped her arms around him. She pressed his head against her shoulder. "Chris," she pleaded in his ear, "You are Chris. Remember you are Chris."

His eyes stopped glowing. He breathed in deeply with relief. Then he wrapped his arms around her. "Thank you," he said with relief.

The people sighed and started to mutter again.

One person suddenly yelled out, "What's wrong with him?" Some people shifted away awkwardly when he asked the question nagging everyone's mind.

Neither Chris nor Aviva responded. They just sat there embraced. "You're okay," Aviva said thankfully. "I thought you bur-,"she swallowed the thought.

"M'ha. Yeah, I didn't think I'd get out."

"I left you there, this is all my fault-," she stopped short. Aviva let go of Chris. He sighed unhappily. She stood up looking fairly stunned. "Wait, what did you say caused the fire?"

Ashley stepped up and responded angrily, "For the last time, the monster did it, the same monster that attacked Martin."

Chris let out a terrible sob and collapsed onto his side with tears starting to stream down his cheeks. Aviva looked down at him sympathetically, realizing that he was the one who nearly killed his own brother. Chris was the monster, and she knew it. The truth made her very uncomfortable and scared. "That's a lie," she said shakily.

"Excuse me? What did you just say?" snapped Ashley.

"That's a lie," Aviva said a little louder.

"Really, haha, really? You definitely have been keeping quiet lately. Maybe you're lying."

"No," she said wearily. "Koki said the tent was not knocked over by any monster. I also saw Martin put out the fire. Unless it magically sprang back to life, someone is lying here."

Ashley and her men shifted nervously. All the people muttered and nodded.

"No!" growled Ashley, "I know you have a secret! You have a secret!"

Chris looked at her shyly and stood up. He took a strong step forward, eyes suddenly growing in confidence. "This fire was on purpose. I was there. I know the monster didn't do it." He turned to look at Aviva. He put his hand on his chest. "He didn't do it."

"What? What? Are you saying that-," she started to laugh, "That you think I-." Her laughing became weak. Her men started to back away. She whipped toward them, "You're not going ANYWHERE!"

Aviva blinked. "_You_? You did it? Why? Why on earth would you do something that horrible? You could have killed Chris."

"I know!" she growled angrily. "I know."

Aviva looked at her upset. "Why?"

Ashley sighed. "I had to get rid of your stuff so you would not be able to return here."

The crowds gasped and Quince moved toward her angrily, but the captain caught him by the wrist.

"I-I-I wanted to catch the Thylacine on my own. I want it. I _need _it."

Aviva shook her head, "_Why?_"

Ashley snapped back, "STOP ASKING WHY! I've told you enough already! I'm going to kill it! I'm going to kill that thing!"

Chris swallowed and fell back a little.

"Sorry, Chris, but I can't have it hurting anymore of my neighbors. I don't care if it's a living thing. It's threatening more living things." She pointed to his brother laying on the ground. "Look at what it did to him."

"FORGIVE ME MARTIN!" screamed Chris as he fell to his knees. "FORGIVE ME!"

Aviva wanted to cry at this point.

"I'm going to kill it. I will destroy it. Who is with me?"

Her men raised their hands first. Then many of the people followed, including her little sister. Soon even the paramedics started raising their hands.

Quince glared at the paramedic beside him. "What?" said the paramedic in annoyance.

"Oh no, oh no, please!" pleaded Chris desperately. "PLEASE! DON'T DO IT! PLE-EASE!" He was screaming hysterically. Aviva ran up to him, followed by Koki and a few firemen. "DON'T! I'M BEGGING YOU!"

"No one is listening to you anymore, Chris. Think about it. What matters more, your brother, or that thing."

Chris wanted to scream 'THE THING', but he knew it was something more than that. He wanted to say himself. She wasn't going to shot an animal. She was going to shoot _him_. And he knew he loved his brother more, but he was scared.

"Shhh-shhh Chris, please be quiet now," cried Aviva. Tears were starting to fill her eyes as she watched her friend in so much pain.

Koki embraced Chris and then Aviva did the same. They were like a tight ball of sobs. Even Quince walked up to them and gave them a comforting few pats on the back, though he was not quite sure why they were so upset. All he knew is that the Wild Kratts were special people…at least that was what he had heard from his nephew Kenny.

* * *

**Is it Kenny? I've forgotten, lol. You know that little kid in Tazzy Chris, that's who it's supposed to be. Maybe Kenny will clear up Chris's CPS problem for the peeps. I still want to slap Ashley, and I still really like Quince! REVIEW, as always 83**


	9. Chapter 8

Hullo again peeps! 8D New update. Sorry for the wait! ;n; I'm graduating middle school thing Thursday *sniffles* I have to go to public next year... But I'm in creative writing class 8D! Oh gee O-o This chapter is 9 pages long. Personal record.

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**Chapter 8**

Chris woke up slowly. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and took time to adjust to where he was, though he didn't recognize the place at all. He yawned softly and tried to sit up, but his head hurt too much.

"Don't move, you're hurt."

Chris remembered that voice from last night, but he couldn't figure out who's it was. He blinked until his view came into focus. A young woman with cropped brown hair stood above him. She looked a whole lot like the paramedic from the other night.

"Oh," she smiled, "You're probably confused. I'm one of the paramedics, my name is Kari."

"Why am I here?" he said wearily.

"It's a long story. You were in serious pain, and you started getting delusional. Some people thought you were going insane. People thought it was best to treat you. I was the only one brave enough to take on the job," she smiled again and pressed a refreshing wet cloth on his forehead.

"Ah," he sighed, "That feels good." He took a few moments of silence, just letting the cooling relief sink in.

"I'm glad you're alright. You're poor friends were so worried," Kari breathed sadly.

"My friends?" Chris said worriedly, "How-how are they?"

"They were the ones who wanted to treat you. But they had gone through enough that night, according to the others."

Chris pressed the cloth harder against his head and water gushed out across his overheated face. "What happened to them?"

Kari shrugged. "I'm not sure. I was forced to leave before I knew what was happening."

"Ugh, If they questioned them, they've got another thing coming."

Another voice came from somewhere else in the house, "Eh? Who is that in the house?"

"Oh," Kari got up and walked to the doorway of the room. She called out through the house, "It's the patient, granny! I'm in the guest room!"

"Course you are!" laughed the voice merrily.

Kari plopped next to the bed again. "My grandma is here. I forgot to mention that, sorry."

Chris shrugged wearily, "No problem." He sat there silently for a moment and then breathed in deeply, he almost sounded like he was stifling a cry. "Do you know anything about my brother?"

"Oh," she looked down. "They took him to the hospital."

Chris sighed sadly, "Why me?"

Kari didn't question him. Soon her grandma stepped into the room with a tray of chocolate chip cookies.

"Hey, you two! Old granny baked you a tray of her homemade cookies," She laughed merrily again and held out the tray to Chris. "Have some sonny!"

Chris turned down the offer, "No thank you. I'm not very hungry, thanks."

"What a polite little boy!" smiled granny.

"Little?" questioned Chris playfully.

Kari giggled.

"Ah, it's good to have a little laughter again," sighed Chris. "It's been so tough lately."

"I'm sorry."

"What? What do you mean?" Chris asked with a small cock of his head.

"I mean," Kari muttered, "I heard you were the guy that was trying to protect the thing and then last night-."

"Oh," Chris chuckled with a hint of sadness. "Yeah, the reason we came here was the find a T-tiger. It's been a lifelong dream, but it kind of went out of control." Chris rubbed the side of his head nervously.

"Oh, you look so warm, sonny! Let ol' granny get you some lemonade," granny said cheerfully as she stepped out of the room.

"Uh, no thank you!" called Chris.

"No, no, Granny knows what you need!"

Chris chuckled, "Cheerful old thing, isn't she?"

"Yes," said Kari sadly.

"Oh?"

"She's been with me for quite a while. After she didn't have anyone to take care of her, I had to take her in."

"I see," Chris looked up at the ceiling. "Why wouldn't your parents let her in?"

"Well," Kari looked down. "My father ran away after my mother died. I was only 18."

"Oh, geez, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-."

Kari looked up with a smile, "It's alright. It's kind of nice to get that off my chest."

Chris nodded solemnly; there were a lot of things he wanted to get off his chest too. "The name's Chris, if you didn't already know."

"Oh I knew," she smiled playfully.

"What-what exactly happened yesterday? I can't exactly remember."

"Some firemen found you in the middle of the forest acting insane and running away from them like they were the monster."

"Yeah, haha, the monster," mumbled Chris upset.

"What's the problem?"

"Ugh," Chris put his hand on the burn on his face. "It's way too hard to explain. I wish I could say something, but I can't. People here just don't understand."

Kari looked slightly offended, "What? Do you think we don't respect nature? We do! But we aren't going to risk our life to keep a berserk thylacine that has nearly killed two people alive."

"Wait, what did you just say?" Chris said worriedly.

"Oh what, did you expect me to say something else?" Kari looked a little bit irritated.

"No,no," Chris shook his head quickly. "What did you say about the-the _two_ people?"

"Your brother was nearly killed yesterday."  
"No, no, I can't believe, is he dying?" Chris said frantically. "This isn't right, I wouldn't, could never, it wouldn't, couldn't, _can't_!"

"Calm down!" panicked Kari. "Please calm down! I don't think I could handle you freaking out like last night!"

"I-I," Chris breathed shakily. "I'm really sorry. I'm having trouble lately."

"I could tell," Kari blinked affrightedly.

Granny came skipping back in the room, "Eh, sorry kiddo! I looked through the whole kitchen. There isn't a drop of lemonade in there, granny checked."

"That's alright," breathed Chris. He looked down at his chest and saw the glass shards sticking out. He sniffed and rubbed the wet tears out of his eyes. "I didn't mean you don't respect nature. It's different. It doesn't have to do anything with that."

"Oh, alright, sorry for getting, you know-."

Granny came up to Chris with a smile and looked down at his chest. "No, no. That isn't safe, sonny, having glass stick out. Tut-tut, you shouldn't want to get cut." She started to pick at the glass on his chest, pulling the pieces off one by one.

Chris looked startled for a few seconds, but then finally reacted, "Please don't do that!" He pulled the covers over his chest. "That's danger-_dangerous_." Chris's voice cracked again and he immediately slapped his hand over his mouth.

Kari cocked her head, "What_ is_ on your chest?"

"Um," he shrugged innocently. "That would be too hard to explain."

"This doesn't have anything to do with why you were acting up last night, was it?"

Chris's eyes widened fearfully. All the recent memories he felt like he had forgotten shot through his head like a bullet. He remembered leaping from the fire. He remembered running away. Then he remembered Martin. He howled out at the memory and clutched his head; leaning back and tumbling off the bed with a crash as he landed on top of the cookie tray.

"Please don't!" Kari screamed in attempt to help him up.

"No, no, no!" He clutched his head harder; his arm shaking like a leaf. "He's not dying! Who said he was dying? He can't die! Someone knows, someone's after me!"

Kari backed up frightened. "Knows what? What are you talking about?" She backed up into the wall. "I knew I shouldn't have helped this maniac!"

"Huh-oh, Old Granny doesn't like the look of this," and with that she walked calmly out of the room.

Chris blinked, body still shaking. He sat up. "Oh Gosh, I can't believe, I told myself I wouldn't do that again." He started slapping himself in the face. "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid." Classic self-hatred, that's what that was.

Kari stood up shakily. She swallowed, "Don't-don't do that again."

He looked up at her. "I'll try." He got up and started to pace, "Panic. Panic is not good either." He was waving his hands around dramatically as he talked to himself. "Anger and panic. Both are bad. Don't have either of them. I won't have them!" He smacked his head against the wall and yelled out in frustration, "YOU CAN'T BE FRUSTRATED EITHER!" He collapsed to his knees. "Uggghhhh…. Why me?" He moaned sadly.

"You need help, you need help, I can't help you. I'm sorry but you're crazed. You need help." Kari started to have her own crazed look in her eyes: a crazed look of fear.

"No. No one can help me except my friends."

"Why!?" She yelled at him. "Why? Why is that?"

Chris looked up at her and pointed to the shattered glass circle on his chest. "That is why." He got up and ran to the doorway. He smiled up at her. "Thanks for the help."

She stood there confused.

He turned and ran. A few seconds later, she heard a door open and close with a slam. "I am the thylacine!"

"Did he just say-?" She blinked, lost in confusion.

Old Granny came back in the room. "Don't worry," she laughed in a cheerfully old-lady like way. "That boy knows what he's doing."

Chris had been running through the little neighborhood for quite some time, yet he had not found who he was looking for yet. Where was she? Had she gone hunting for him in the woods? Was she at the hospital mocking his brother? Was she at her house? Chris was getting impatient and that made him feel angry, which wasn't good for his condition. He walked up to a random house and knocked on the door. He waited there, trying to calm himself by rocking back and forth on his heels. The door didn't open. No one was home. Chris sighed and plopped down on the stairs of the porch. He had to think. Who was there last night? He knew that Kari was, but who else? For a moment he sat in thought, but then suddenly he jumped up to his feet. _The firemen!_ Chris ran back to the street and toward the center of town. Now which way was the town?

Quince sat on the edge of his cot. He was staring at the plain white wall in front of him. The other firemen decided to give Quince a day off because he seemed to be running a fever. Sadly none of them, except the other two that didn't bring it up, knew that was because he had jumped into a river to save a man. Quince was still trying to figure out what had happened to that man, Chris, last night. _Electrocuted. Static. Glowing eyes. I can't figure it out_. Quince grabbed his head wearily. It didn't make sense. Quince felt the need to protect the man last night. He knew he was trying to keep something secret, he could tell. But what was it? Suddenly he remembered the brothers' last name: _Kratt_. He remembered thinking about it the other night, his nephew Kenny had talked about them so much the last time he visited. He had to call him.

Quince grabbed his cellphone from the drawer in his nightstand. He dialed his beloved nephew's number and pressed the phone against his ear, listening to it dialing. The phone rung four times. Quince tapped his foot impatiently. _Come on, Kenny, pick up the phone. _He heard the phone get picked up on the other end. "Kenny! Kenny."

"Uncle? You sound distressed?"

"Kenny, I need to ask you a favor."

"Uh, sure, what do you need?"

Quince clutched the phone harder, "Tell me, who are the Kratts?"

"Eh, what? Why do you need to know?"

"Kenny," Quince sighed impatiently. "Something happened last night with one of them. No one here knows who they are."  
"I don't know, uncle. Some of their information is-."

"Just tell me, mate!"

"Ae, alright!" Kenny paused for a couple of seconds, "They're two brothers who travel the world to rescue and learn about different animals. Creature adventurers, they call themselves."

"Eh, yes, anything else important, possibly about electricity?"

"Uh," Kenny paused in confusion, "Oh, is that what you wanted to know, mate? You wanted to know about the suits?"

"The what, nephew?" Quince was puzzled.

"The power suits. It's a fairly futuristic invention, you might not-."

"I can handle it," said Quince, itching with interest.

"Well," Kenny hesitated, "It gives them the ability to transform, mechanically speaking, into whatever animal they touch and activate off of."

"I," Quince muttered stunned, "That's insane."

"What did I tell you? Last time they were in Tasmania, mate, the suit glitched. So obviously the suits are technology, the brothers aren't shape shifters, if that was what you were thinking." Kenny laughed lightly, "Poor Chris, eating trash and things he shouldn't, poor little devil."

"Glitching?" Quince breathed. "What do you mean?"

"You know, he was acting quite funny, switching from human to tazzy devil, hardly aware of what was happening. Why?"

"Thank you, Kenny!" Quince quickly hung up the phone.

"Uh, you're welcome uncle?" Kenny said to static on the other side of the line.

Chris finally found his way to the fire station and ran in through the opening into the garage filled with red fire trucks. He whirled around one of the trucks and ran into a fire man.

"Chris?" said the man startled.

"Yes, random man who I don't believe I've met, how do you know who I am?" Chris replied, startled as well.

"You-you," the man swallowed. "I saved you from the river last night."

"Oh! I do know you then." He gave the man a hard friendly slap on the back. "Thanks for saving me, uh, gotta go."

"Wait! Wait. I-I want to help you," the man coughed.

"Um, wait-wait-wait, you don't," Chris laughed a little, "You don't even know what's going on. I just need a little bit of help finding someone."

"No I know," he said a little stronger.

"Um, no you don't."

"I do."

"Do not."

"Do."

"Do not!"

"You're the Tasmanian tiger!"

Chris immediately slapped his hand across the man's mouth and pulled him behind the truck. Chris glared him down. "How do you know that?"

The man pulled Chris's hand from his mouth, "I'm Quince, Kenny's uncle. Kenny knows you."

"Kenny-Kenny…" Chris was raking his mind for the name. "Oh! Kenny, the Wild Kratt kid of Tasmania!" He laughed quietly.

"Er, yes, but I want to help you. Apparently you've been unaware of your state-wait- how do you know you're…."

"Uh, well," Chris swallowed shakily, "My-my brother. I did that to him." He voice became upset and he had a hard time speaking without his voice making a funny noise.

"Oh, that was," Quince stopped himself. His brother was obviously a touchy subject to him. "He's at the hospital. Koki and Jimmy are with him. The other girl, Aviva, is trying to salvage things from the fire."

Chris had curled himself into a ball and leaned against the truck.

"Uh, are you alright?"

Chris looked up, he was shaking slightly. He screamed out. It was so un-human. He was transforming.

"Hey! Hey! Don't do that! Not here!" Quince yelled worriedly. He leaned down and shook Chris violently, "Hey!"

He cried out again and his glowing eyes rolled back in his head. He hands tensed and his body started to stretch out. Suddenly there was a brilliant green flash. Quince fell back and hit the metal ladder on the truck behind him and was knocked out cold.

A shiver went through Tazzy Chris's body and he stood up; he ran out into the streets and towards the forest.

Aviva rummaged through the ashes. She found a few bits of metal and something that looked like a chocolate rapper. Everything was gone. How could this happen? What had she done to deserve this? She was just glad the Tortuga hadn't burned. She sat down under a charred tree and put her hands to her face. How could someone do something so terrible without getting arrested? That horrible woman nearly killed many people and she obliterated a forest. Aviva just couldn't believe it.

She heard a gruff snort from somewhere near to her and she looked up. Not far away, a large greenish animal stood on his hind legs sniffing a tree. Aviva started to panic, but then she suddenly remembered that it must be Chris. She put a hand to her chest and breathed, "Chris, you scared me."

Tazzy Chris turned to face her. He was about 20 meters away and he narrowed his dark eyes. He started to growl. He raised his hackles and his back fur stood on end.

"Chris?" Aviva said alarmed. "Chris it's me." She started to back away slowly, but her panic set him off.

He continued to growl and continued to approach. He tried to frighten her to show he wasn't afraid of her, even though he was. He feared all humans after they tried to shoot him.

"Please Chris," she pleaded. She picked up her back pack, not that it would do her much good. She started to dig through it as she backed up, occasionally looking back at the ferocious green thylacine stalking her. She pulled out a sandwich and tossed it in front of her.

Tazzy, startled at first, started to walk up to the sandwich. It smelled good… and oh, was that salami? He picked it up with his teeth ate it quickly. He licked his lips and then looked at Aviva.

"Oh, I don't have any more," she said fearfully.

He cocked his head playfully. He started to come up to her. Slowly but surely, he stopped right in front of her. He made a deep rumbling sound in his throat.

Aviva stood perfectly still. _Hopefully that isn't the 'I want to eat you now' sound._ After a couple seconds, she assured herself that he wasn't going to eat her. Carefully she gradually reached out put her hand against his furry green neck. She started to rub him. He rumbled louder. "You like that don't you? A nice snack and then a rub down, huh?" She felt suddenly awkward as she was talking to her human friend like she would talk to a puppy. She backed away from him. "Sorry. That was weird."

He cocked his head confused, as if saying: _no it wasn't_. He shook his head and turned from her, lumbering off to somewhere in the woods.

She blinked a couple times. "Wait-where do you think you're going?" She started to follow him. He started to run from her. She started to run after him. "Wait!"

Eventually Chris jumped down the side of a hill and behind a tall tree that grew out of it.

"Come back here, you!" Aviva demanded angrily as if she was talking now to a bad dog. She stomped down to the edge of the hill and peered around the tree. Chris was sitting there smiling at her; showing off his gorgeously sharp canines. Aviva shook her head, rolled her eyes, laughed, and clambered down to sit next to him. When she did, he abruptly stood up and waltzed right up to a stream 10 feet in front of the tree. It was a perfectly lovely babbling brook glistening in the sunshine. She walked up to it and dipped her hand into the water; letting the icy cold water flow between her fingers.

Chris smiled and made the rumbling sound again, then dunked his head suddenly into the water, making shimmering silver beads fly into the air. Aviva jumped back as the freezing droplets splattered against her skin. He soon shot back up, spraying more water yet again with a shake of his furry wet head.

"Stop it, you mangy beast!" Aviva scolded playfully.

Chris starred at her wide eyed for a moment. He was holding a rather big fish in his mouth. Humming deep within his throat, Tazzy lowered his head to her. She starred back at him with her grey eyes, "What? You expect me to eat that? It's raw."

He just hummed louder, dropped it at her feet, and sat back relaxed. He smiled again.

"No. I will not and will never eat that."

Chris pushed the fish forward with his paw. The silver scaled fish flopped a little. It was still alive.

Aviva smiled disgustedly and picked up the injured fish. Chris tapped his tail impatiently. She quickly threw the fish back into the stream. "Look, there I ate it."

Tazzy humphed and glared at her irately. _Hilarious. I'm not that stupid you know._

"I wasn't going to eat it, even if you forced me."

Chris looked away; pretending to ignore her completely.

"I'm sorry that I don't eat raw fish!" Aviva snorted sarcastically.

From within the bushes, Ashley was watching. She was stunned. How could she be hanging out with that animal after last night? Why wasn't it attacking? Ashley, to her regret, was alone. The other men had stayed at their houses to prepare traps and weapons as she searched for the animal's soft spot. She kept watching with her eyes wide.

"Taz," Aviva said softly. "I need to help you. If people only knew how soft you are. You're a gentle giant."

He nodded sharply with a grunt.

_He understands her. How strange._ Ashley cocked her head with interest.

"If only everyone fed you a sandwich! Than you'd love them all," chuckled Aviva with a smile as patted his neck.

He licked his lips.

_That's it! Food!_ Ashley smiled excitedly, but her excitement made her restless and with a small movement the whole bush shook.

Chris's eyes suddenly slit and he started to growl. His hair rose and he turned to face the bush on the other side of the river. Aviva huddled against him. It was good to have a giant animal on your side. "What is it?"

His glare didn't shake from the bush. His hackles rose like he was about to pounce.

Suddenly a figure jumped from the bush. "Nobody move!" She was holding an armed gun that she pointed threateningly at them.

Tazzy shrunk back behind Aviva at the sight of the gun. So much for a giant protective creature. "Ashley!" She shouted. "You have no right to turn up after what you did last night! You should have been arrested."

Ashley shrugged, "Apparently not."

"Shut up! Just shut up! I can't take you anymore."

"That's a good thing to me. That means I'm intimidating you," she smirked.

"No you're not! Get away from us!"

"I'm going to shoot that thing. It's dangerous! It will kill you!"

She looked up at the cowering Chris. "No he won't."

Ashley loaded her gun and pointed it straight ahead.

Aviva didn't budge. She was the only thing standing between Ashley's gun and Chris. She knew Ashley wouldn't shoot her, so she didn't move. "I'm not moving. I will not let you kill him!"

"Move, before I shoot!" Ashley snarled.

Aviva was afraid. She wanted to step aside, but she knew better. She kept her ground.

"Move!" growled Ashley as she shook her gun impatiently.

"I will not," Aviva said strongly. At that exact moment an incredible blinding light flashed in front of their eyes. A rustle was heard and when the light cleared, the monster was gone.

"What!?" cried Ashley in anger. "Gosh, woman, were did it go?!"

Aviva was startled. She didn't know were Chris went either. Before she could respond, a bush rustled behind her.

"Move," ordered Ashley once more as she readied her gun.

It happened all too fast for Aviva to understand what happened. She heard the powerful gunshot and felt herself fall to the ground. The sound rung through her head. Fearing herself dead, she squeezed her eyes shut.

A soft and frightened voice spoke to her. "It's alright. You can get up."

Her stormy grey eyes shot open. She was looking into the brown eyes of Chris Kratt. He stood up awkwardly and dusted himself off. "Close one."

"You-how-yesterday?" sputtered Ashley. "I-I-what the?"

Chris shook his head. "You should be ashamed of yourself. You've almost killed me _twice_ and it's only been two days. How many times are going to try to kill me?" He touched the burns on his face sheepishly.

"I didn't mean to!" She cried.

"I've realized, but you keep doing it, don't you? You almost killed her as well." Chris gestured to Aviva calmly.

"I wasn't aiming for her! I was-the monster-it was here!" She stuttered fearfully.

"Yes he was, wasn't he?" Chris chuckled.

Ashley got up without any further words and ran away.

Chris sighed happily, "There goes one more problem. Hopefully she won't come back for a while."

Aviva swallowed. "I hope she didn't know it was…you."

"Ha, no one knows," Chris smiled, but soon swallowed his happiness when he remembered he had already broken the news to two people.

* * *

OuO Sorry that one scene seemed too much of a mix of _Brave_ and _How to Train Your Dragon_, LOL. 8D Just saying, Attack of the Tree Eating Aliens is this Friday. I'm soooo excited for that one. **Review** and make me happy. I think the next chapter _might_ be the last one. (phew O-O')


	10. Chapter 9

**Sorry it took so long. I haven't been wanting to work on this story. Happy late birthday Chris Kratt 8D (this isn't a very good birthday chapter O.O') But it is the 2nd to last chapter so YAY.**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

The firemen returned from their recent mission to find Quince unconscious next to one of the many fire trucks.

"Smart one, isn't he?" remarked one.

"We left him alone for 2 seconds and look what he's done to himself!" remarked another.

"Didn't we tell him to stay in bed like any sick man should be doing?"

They all stood around him, shaking their heads and sighing at their pitiful team mate. The picked his limp body up and coordinately carried him up the stairs to his cot together. They lay him down and left him on his own, except for two who were told to watch him so that he would not do something dangerous in his state.

After a while of quiet conversation between the two of them, they looked down and saw Quince open his eyes and come out of his unconsciousness.

When his blurry vision cleared he spoke in a puzzled tone. "What happened?"

"I dunno, mate. You tell me," scoffed the man to his right.

"Ahhhh," he rubbed the back of his head sorely. "I think I hit my head."

"Of course you did!" snorted the man to his left as he stood up fumingly, "Leave it to Quince to injury himself. You're more accident prone than an untrained toddler!"

Quince pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "You wouldn't have understood what happened. It wasn't my fault I hurt myself, I was trying to avoid getting injured by something else."

"Like what?" said the one to the right of him.

"A rake?" laughed the other one.

"Haha, real funny bringin' that back up." Quince cringed at that memory.

He didn't stop laughing as he said this, "But seriously, what happened?"

"The thing-," Quince swiftly swallowed his sentence.

"The _what_?"

"Uh-," Quince shivered nervously, "Never mind?" He paused for a second as they stared at him uncomfortably. "Got to go, see you later, mates!" As he got up frantically the one to his left grabbed his white collar of his shirt and pulled him back.

"Where do you think _you're_ going?"

"Uh-heh," Quince laughed innocently. _Ho-boy, I'm in for it. _

He shoved him back down to the bed. "_Rest_," he demanded seriously, "And nothing else."

…..

Martin sat up with a great headache. His eye lids drooped and you could see bags under his weary pink eyes. The sleeping gas hadn't helped all that much either. Emotionlessly he reached down and touched the stitches on his side without looking at them. He sighed distantly.

Jimmy tried to smile as he walked up to Martin. "Yo, Mart!" He laughed shyly. "Awkward…."  
Koki shoved Jimmy aside, "Be quiet, Jimmy!" She whispered at him, "You'll make him worse. Remember when you tried to cheer Chris up with your brilliant video game?"

"Can't you get over that yet? It's been-like-a year."

Koki just glared at him.

"Apparently not," he looked away and whistled innocently.

"Gee, Jimmy," said Martin suddenly. His voice was hoarse and raspy. They had never heard him like this before. He was looking into the distance. "I'm sorry you can't cheer me up, it's just." He finally looked down at his chest. "It's just."

"We understand," Koki said quickly.

"We do?" Jimmy said confusedly.

Koki elbowed him sharply.

"Okay! Okay, we do. We got it, Martin." The two of them waved to him with a soft smile and walked out of the room.

Martin spoke sadly under his breathe. "I didn't want you to leave. I don't want to be alone." He watched them walk out of the room. "Please, find my brother."

…..

Ashley ran home, a sly sneaky smile on her face. She jumped into the seat in front of her desk and turned on her white computer. She started to type, smiling harder as she did.

Ashley's little sister came into the room wearing her little pink night gown. "Sis? Where were you all day?"

Glaring at her, Ashley scoffed, "And why aren't you dressed yet?"

"I can't reach the drawer!" She whined sadly.

She turned back to her computer. "Stop whining and get a stool."  
"Aw, but the stool's too heavy!" She pouted sadly.

"Well that's too bad, because I'm not helping you," She snorted, her eyes never leaving the computer screen.

The little girl slumped, turned, and walked out the room mumbling, "You're a horrible sibling sometimes."

Ashley spoke under her breath. "Oh well." She kept typing as fast as she could. The words piled up orderly on the screen until she filled the page. Bolding the title, she smiled and looked at the page. "Hope people find these," and with that she hit the print button and set the number to 30. "I hope they do."

She waited patiently, watching each of the pages print, counting each of them as they came out…26…27…28…29…30. The printer made a click as a sign that it had finished. She quickly swooped up the papers and stashed them in her bag. She started walking out the door, but her sister stopped her.

"You're not leaving again, are you?"

She glared at her, "Yes I am."

"Don't leave me alone again! I'm scared! What if there's another fire?"

"There won't be another fire," she said dully as she tried to pry her sister from the door frame.

"Mom wouldn't want you to have left me alone."

Ashley swallowed hesitantly. She didn't know exactly how to respond to that. "Mom's-mom isn't here anymore. It-it doesn't matter." She ripped her sister from the door and gently shoved her back inside the house.

She just looked back at her older sister sadly, almost broken-heartedly.

Ashley stared back for a couple seconds, feeling as if something was tearing a rift in her heart, but she blinked it off and slammed the door closed. The sour look returned to her face as she turned away and ran toward the town's central to place her flyers.

…

"Alright," she said to him. "Sit still and I'll help you." She gently tugged at the edges of the suit. They were stuck to him like they had been duck taped there. "Uh-hold on-let me just try to pull it all the way off."

He laughed, "Ha! I can't believe I never thought of this before. Soon we'll be home free! No more problems! We're done here!"

"Okay," she said with a nervous laugh, "I'm going to pull it over your head…1…2…3!" She gave the suit a violent tug, but it didn't budge. Her hands slipped from the fabric and she fell onto her back.

"Ow-watch it!" He retorted angrily. "That _really _hurt!"

"It _hurt_?" She questioned.

"It shocked me."

They stared at each other when they had the same realization. "It's stuck on with electricity."

Chris frowned. "It's like a gecko's toe-pad. That's one of the 'stickiest' things on earth," he sighed hopelessly. "What if I'm stuck like this _forever_?"

"What?" She said, anger and worry in her voice. "What is wrong with you? You never act like this ever ever"-she paused. He had acted like this before, when he was afraid. It was rare for him, but it happened. She swallowed her rant. "I'll figure it out, don't worry. Besides it's science, not magic. It's not like you're under an unbreakable spell."

"Ha," he laughed sadly, eyes drifting toward the ground.

"Well-," She breathed in, thinking for a moment. "We should probably go into the city and get some new tools. The other ones burned up in the fire." She sighed depressively when she said that last sentence.

"I guess," he breathed, rubbing back of his neck. "That would be _okay_." He smiled slightly when he looked back up. "Okay, Aviva, let's go." He got up quickly and started to walk off.

The two of them walked casually side-by-side down the sidewalks of the town's shopping center. Aviva continually stopped in front of clothing stores and shoe stores to see what was on display. Chris stepped next to her with his hands behind his back when she stopped in front of a yellow dress. "Window shopping, are we?"

"Oh," she jumped slightly almost as if she had forgotten he was with her. "I-I had a dress like that when I was younger." She paused. "But you can't really wear dresses when you're adventuring like this. You know, rescuing tazzies." She elbowed him and laughed.

"Yeah," he laughed half-heartedly. He turned from her and kept walking. She eventually caught up to him.

"So," she said, "What were you doing all morning?"

He swallowed nervously. "Uhhh, what were _you_ doing last night? I-I wasn't there."

"You were," she said, cocking her head. "But you were passed out." She smirked a little. "I was with the firemen and the rest of the crew. They kept questioning me about you acting up. I said you were born with a problem that you get easily overheated and it gets you sick."

Chris shrugged and smiled a little, "That's reasonable, I guess."

She nodded, "It was a pretty good idea on my part." She swayed on her heels for a second and then continued to walk on. "If we want to fix you up soon, we should hurry up and get those tools."

"That's fine with me," he said quickly as he jogged to her side.

They continued to walk on for a couple minutes, until something on a wooden post caught his eye. He didn't usually look at the little advertisements or coupons posted along the polls, but one piece of paper caught his eye. It wasn't flashy or bright, it was just white like the other posters that peeled away beside it. The thing that caught his eye was the big bolded words on the top: **THYLACINE MONSTER HUNT**. Chris's heart thumped inside his chest. This couldn't be true. It just couldn't. His eyes floated down one line. **MEET AT 2:00. REWARD FOR CAPTURE: $500**. That was a lot of money that a lot of people would want. Even farther below that was a paragraph that said: **Bring guns, traps, and all the old food you can to use as bait. We can use all the people we can get. We need to stop this monster in its tracks. **Chris shook his head unbelievably. He put his hand to his face in frustration. This was insanity. He looked at the paper again, trying to soak up all the things these people had in mind for him. Noticing a list beneath the paragraph, he began to read it.

**There are many reasons for this hunt. Please don't take it as an offence against animals. This is no wild animal to be passionate with. It is dangerous and caused many disasters and problems including:**

**-FRIGHTENING PEOPLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT**

**-SEVERELY INJURING MULTIPLE PEOPLE**

**-CATCHING A FOREST ON FIRE  
-AND A DEATH OF A MAN**

**This menace must be stopped at all costs!**

Chris was now absolutely fuming, shaking his head, trying hard not to believe this. He knew who posted this too: Ashley. "How could she!" He screamed. "How could she LIE!? I…IT DID NONE OF THIS!" He grabbed the flier and crunched it in his fist. His back was raised slightly and his muscles were tensed. Clutching the crumpled paper harder, his hands began to sweat. Chris began to tremble. "How," he snarled. A sudden shock of electricity rippled up his spine and he collapsed.

Aviva heard him yelling from a couple blocks away and came running toward her hurt friend. "We need to fix you NOW."

She chained him to the tree. It was his idea, not hers; she reminded him when he shifted uncomfortably in his place.

"This is a whole lot more unpleasant than I thought," he laughed weakly.

"Your idea," she smiled as she continued to pull out more shiny new tools from her tool box(which was new too).

He cocked his head and then shook it playfully, "I _thought_ it was a good idea, now I'm not so sure."

"It will keep you still," Aviva said as she approached him with a screw driver, a wrench, and something that looked like a long metal toothpick. He was only chained by one arm, but she didn't give him a very long leash. He could only move about five feet before the chain pulled him back.

He lay back and looked at the green canopy above him. "Gladly the _whole_ forest didn't burn. It's a lovely place."

Aviva nodded slowly and slid the edge of the screw driver into the small space between the button and the suit and pressed back.

"Not so hard! That tickles," he laughed.

"Stop moving!" She ordered and soon after pressed harder.

"Stop it, stop it!"

She heard a click and both of them silenced. "Got it!" She pulled the hard plastic that usually held a disc right off to reveal delicate wiring underneath.

"Cool," Chris said as he tried to get a peek at the wiring. "I've always wondered what it looked like in the suit."

"It looks like the saliva from the thylacine that bit you seeped into the wiring." She paused and scraped dried drool from side of the button's wall. "The wires aren't sensors though, but they've registered the DNA from the button, and since it can't be deactivated it won't forget the DNA." Aviva paused again. "It looks like the bite messed up one of the activation wires. That's why you keep reactivating." She fiddled around with the wires with the tip of screw driver. "If I could just replace the wire…you would stop activating."

"Oh, good idea Aviva. See, you always know what to do!" Chris encouraged her.

She stood up and left her tools next to him. "I've got to go get something! Be right back!" After she ran a couple meters, she turned back around, "Stay calm."

He saluted her with his free hand, "Will do."

….

"How many have you set up?"

"Thirteen," answered the man. "All of them have bait."

"Good," Ashley approved. "If other people participate, we'll catch it for sure."

Another man came up, "It's 1 o' clock. Just two more hours until we meet up with the others."

"If only I had more patience," she smiled. "We should split up and see if we exact its location."

The two men nodded and went in opposite directions. Ashley waited until they were out of site, and then she walked forward into the forest alone.

Ashley looked at the trees as she walked, being cautious of every movement. She gave a snarky laugh, "Those people are glad the whole forest didn't burn." She rolled her eyes and continued along.

She turned her head at the sound of a clinking noise. She quickly and quietly pulled her hunting rifle off her back and slowly approached the sound. Coming up to a bush she loaded the gun with a quick click and jumped through the bushes, hand on the trigger. She heard a loud gasp.

"Oh my god, you almost gave me a heart attack," Chris laughed breathlessly as he put his hand against his chest. His laugh faltered and he gave her a glare. "Lem'me guess, out hunting for the monster?" he said frustrated, attempting to cross his arms, but the chain stopped him.

She lowered her gun, "What the heck are you doing chained to a tree?"

"Uh, well," he pulled his arm; the chain clinked. "Experiment. Yah' know?"

"No I don't, you idiot."

He flinched, "Um, We're testing-uh-stress levels…"

"By being chained to a tree?"

"Yup!" He laughed nervously. "Yah know stress." He lay back against the ground, "Ah, stress."

"Sure, okay," she said lazily. "What's up with the tools?"

"Friend was working on something. She just left." He turned uncomfortably on his side, "Too bad, you missed her."

"Don't care," she walked passed him, eyeing him suspiciously. He swallowed. "Just don't bother me, okay?" She turned from him and walked straight on. "I need to do this."

Chris just nodded nervously and bit his lip.

…..

"Martin, are you sure you want to do this?" Jimmy questioned skittishly. "You look weak."

He pushed him away, "Just a bit wobbly."

Koki walked next to him, "Please be careful. We don't want you to get hurt again."  
"I won't," said Martin assuredly. "I need to save those animals." He looked at her with worry in his blue eyes, "What if a thylacine is caught? Or maybe even Chris?"

Jimmy and Koki looked at each other and then looked back at Martin. "Be safe."

"I will," he smiled gently as he walked off into what was left of the forest.

They looked at each other again. "I wish we didn't show him those posters."

Martin made his way slowly down the trail. He took his time to listen to the sounds and breathe in the wild air. He needed to relax, and he knew the best place to do so was outside, even though he was having trouble doing it. Martin was stressed about the thylacines. Martin was stressed about his brother. Maybe he needed to be chained to the tree like Chris. He blinked wearily; his eyelids were heavy and tired. He felt like he could just fall asleep under a bush and be very content, but those animals needed his help. If they got trapped in those traps meant for Chris, they'd be doomed.

Looking up and rotating his shoulders for a much need stretch, Martin continued to look around. A few meters away he heard little chirps and whines. He began to run, though he and his stitches didn't enjoy it.

He came to a stop and gasped. A little animal was caught in a trap. A piece of bologna was placed in the center of the snapped clasp. "Good lord, that's horrible." He cried as he fell down to his knees next to the animal. The trap had snapped directly on top of the animal. Martin grabbed the edges of the sharp trap and pulled the top half up while pushing the bottom half down. The little animal squeaked weakly. The trap was too tight and he pulled himself back quickly. The animal squealed in pain when the trap closed again. "Crud," said Martin hopelessly. He groped at the back of the trap and found a latch. "Thank God," he sighed relieved. Giving the latch a tug, he heard the hiss of released pressure and he effortlessly pulled up the trap from the animal. It wheezed as it fell out. Martin quickly picked up the little mammal and cradled it in his arms that shook from stress. "It's alright, it's all right." Through all the blood, cuts, and dents, Martin in dismay identified it as a baby Thylacine. "This just isn't right," he said trembling with the bleeding animal in his arms. "It's okay, it's okay Percy." He kept cradling it and talking to it sweetly as its blood dripped down his hands and arms and onto the green grass below.

Martin continued to cradle it and comfort it until the little creature died there in his arms. With a shiver, he placed it down on the ground next to the open trap on dry grass in the sunlight. "Percy," he said weakly as he bent over and placed his head on his knees. He held the little thylacine's paw with his stained hand until he couldn't take the stress anymore and started to cry silent guilty tears, "I'm sorry."

* * *

**OnO That was really sad to write just saying, also that was the baby from the beginning... based that off a real life experience actually. A friend brought an injured baby rabbit to me that her cat caught and I held it and all of a sudden blood went all over my hands, which I have to admit is pretty traumatic for 10-11 year old. :) He didn't die though. I also found a hurt mocking bird at school and picked him up, but the teacher on recess watch thought it was nasty (TnT) and told me to put it down and wash my hands even though I asked if the office could call the animal rescue. I told the office to pick him up and call them for me and they said okay... the next day I found it in the same spot dead ;n; they lied to me. ANYWAY how did you like the chapter? Reveiw.**

**NEXT ONE IS THE LAST ONE! OUO YAYYYYYYYYY**


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